Alpine Skiingwomen's world cup
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At 10.00 on Saturday the first phase, already "critical" with the cut that will exceed only 16 athletes (out of 46 registered) towards the decisive challenges of the afternoon. The specialty world champion leads the blue quintet, Liensberger and Gut-Behrami aim for the maximum haul, but surprises are just around the corner.
Friday 12 November 2021 7 minutes reading time
It will be the only World Cup appointment as regards the discipline, which is always discussed but will also assign two Olympic titles at the Beijing 2022 Games, between team events and individual tests.
The parallel weekend, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday in Lech / Zuers, will kick off tomorrow with the women's race, the second of this cup 3 weeks away from the giant from Soelden. It is the second time for the Arlberg location, 12 months after the 2020 races that saw the winners Petra Vlhova and Alexis Pinturault; the Slovakian will not be at the start to focus on Levi's two slaloms, just like Mikaela Shiffrin and the Swiss duo formed by Michelle Gisin and Wendy Holdener, while they made different choices, to prepare in advance the North American races, champions of the caliber of Worley, Robinson and our Brignone and Goggia.
Race in a minor tone? Relatively, given that at the Flexen Arena, in the appointment that will begin on Saturday at 10.00 with the qualifying phase, and then decide from 17.00 with the finals (live TV in the morning only on Rai Sport, for the decisive phase of the afternoon also on Eurosport 1), there will be the two reigning world champions, who clamorously triumphed ex aequo in Cortina last February, namely Marta Bassino and Katharina Liensberger.
The format is the same "rearranged" starting from the 2020/21 season: qualification for the best 16 times in the morning (on double heat), where only the time trial will count and not the comparison with the rival, even though the athletes are already down 'side by side. The final phase, on the other hand, will be the now classic one with a double run starting from the round of 16 and direct elimination, with the maximum gap of half a second that can be accumulated in the first descent.
FAVORITES AND SURPRISES, WITH 46 ENROLLMENTS
In addition to Bassino, who finished in 5th place in the Lech / Zuers race in 2020, and the aforementioned Liensberger, maximum attention is paid to Lara Gut-Behrami, who will aim for the full booty already thinking about the general World Cup, but also about many athletes who will be able to sign the classic surprise, a bit like what happened in Sestriere 2020 when Clara Direz defeated Elisa Moerzinger in the final (with Bassino and Brignone at the foot of the podium, confirming that the blues like the PGS type of race).
The Frenchwoman herself will be there tomorrow as well as the Austrian, although probably in the prediction they could have more chances Paula Moltzan, second only to Vlhova 12 months ago at the Flexen Arena, the same Meta Hrovat and Sara Hector, as well as the Norwegian guided patrol from Lysdahl, Tviberg and Stjernesund. And then O''Brien, the other Austrians in racing such as Brunner, Trouppe and Gritsch, Slovenia which will also propose Andreja Slokar and Germany with Lena Duerr.
Only 46 athletes will compete, including 9 Austrian and 8 Swiss, over a third of the total. Casa Italia will focus strongly on Bassino, who in the qualifying phase will be the first to go down (as leader of the ranking that establishes the starting order of the PGS) alongside Moltzan and just before Liensberger (in the second series, while Gut -Behrami will be in the third), but Sophie Mathiou could have good cards to spend in particular, with the Aosta Valley class 2002 (junior slalom champion) who has already shown important qualities in the discipline at the team event of the cup finals in Lenzerheide, the last March.
Then there is Roberta Midali, Anita Gulli (who will then go to Levi to focus strongly on the two slalom of the following cup weekend) and the newcomer in CdM, the 2000 class Celina Haller who cannot be asked what experience. But you never know, in parallel ...
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Parallel Slalom Female Lech / Zuers (AUT)
SLOKAR Andreja
STJERNESUND Thea Louise
LYSDAHL Kristin
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