Vlhova Wins in Are, Returns to Top of Overall Standings

Are, March 12 (TASR) – Slovak Alpine skier Petra Vlhova notched her jubilee twentieth World Cup triumph and returned to the top of the overall standings.

In Friday’s slalom in Are, Sweden, Vlhova was 20 hundredths of a second ahead of Austria’s Katharina Liensberger, and American Mikaela Shiffrin ended up third being 0.64 seconds behind.

The 25-year-old Slovak got 64 points ahead of Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami, who didn’t race in Sweden as she focuses on next week’s World Cup finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. Vlhova won the fourth slalom this season after two triumphs in Levi, Finland and one in Zagreb, Croatia. She has strengthened her lead in the classification of the discipline; she is 85 points ahead of Shiffrin and is close to successfully defending the small globe.

“Every victory is important for me to gain confidence and feel better. We are getting closer and closer to the end of the season. I’ve always focused on my skiing and I haven’t thought about points or globes. It’s getting harder and harder not to think about it, because, frankly, I’m starting to get tired, the season has been running since October. It’s hard to stay calm, but I want to ski the way I know. What happens will happen,” said Vlhova in the first television response.