Federica Brignone won an eventful women’s World Cup super-G on Sunday as the Italian skier extended her lead in the overall standings.
In a tight finish, Brignone was 0.06 seconds faster than defending overall champion Lara Gut-Behrami.
The Swiss star seemed on course for victory but came wide in a turn and skied through soft snow halfway down her run. Gut-Behrami dropped six-tenths behind Brignone’s split time but almost made up the deficit with a strong finish.
Brignone’s teammate Sofia Goggia was 0.09 behind in third and Alice Robinson of New Zealand trailed by 0.22 in fourth.
Results were provisional as lower-ranked skiers were still racing.
Lindsey Vonn finished 1.11 seconds off the lead after what started as a promising run.
The American standout was level with Brignone at her first intermediate time and just 0.13 behind the Italian halfway through her run.
Vonn then caught a bump in a left turn and was thrown off the race line but managed to stay on the course.
Vonn, the record holder with 28 career super-G wins, made her comeback this season at the age of 40 with a new titanium knee after six years away from racing.
Brignone’s 35th career World Cup win helped the Italian extend her lead over Gut-Behrami in the overall standing to 251 points with seven races left. A race win is worth 100 points.
However, the Swiss star remained top of the super-G standings, 55 points clear of Brignone.
On a crisp clear day, a difficult course set caused problems mainly for the early starters as three of the first four racers skied out.
One of them was Emma Aicher, the German prodigy who earned her maiden World Cup victory in Saturday’s downhill.
Lauren Macuga, the American racer who was runner-up to Aicher in the downhill, finished 0.84 behind Brignone and outside the top 10.
Super-G world champion Stephanie Venier was 0.39 behind and stood eighth after the Austrian sat out the downhills the last two days to recover from illness.
