The China Mail - Shiffrin misses historic world medal as Rast wins women's slalom

Rast, the leader after the first run, held her nerve in the second to clock a winning aggregate time of 1min 58.00sec.

Swiss teammate Wendy Holdener claimed silver, at 0.46sec, with Austria's Katharina Liensberger taking bronze (+1.32).

Shiffrin had finished third fastest in the first leg to remain on course to become the most decorated alpine World Ski Championships racer in history.

If the American had won a slalom medal of any colour, she would have surpassed Christl Cranz, who competed for Germany in the 1930s. Both Shiffrin and Cranz have won 15 world championships medals.

But it was not to be as she eventually finished fifth, at 1.37sec, just behind American temmate Paula Moltzan.

It was the unlikely figure of little-known French racer Marion Chevrier, 16th fastet after the first run with a bib number of 37, who held the early provisional lead thanks to an electric second run.

Norway's Mina Fuerst Hotlmann, Sweden's Sara Hector and Swiss racer Melanie Meillard all failed to finish in bright, sunny conditions in front of 15,000 raucous fans packed in around the finish area.

Chevrier eventually lost her lead to Croatia's Zrinka Ljutic, in 2:00.73, as the top eight prepared themselves.

First down was Germany's Lena Duerr and she promptly went 0.28sec faster than Ljutic.

That was short lived as the first of the two home hopes, Katharina Truppe, set the airhorns a'blowing and flags a'waving by leapfrogging the German.

Slovenia's Andreja Slokar then took over as leader, breaking the 2min aggregate time, with just the top five remaining.

First up was Moltzan and she duly replaced the Slovene before Switzerland's Holdener went 0.88sec clear atop the field to pile the pressure on the top three.

Shiffrin was next in the start hut, but the American made a big mistake halfway down the course, resulting in just the 12th fastest second run, and had to be content to settle in behind Holdener and Moltzan.

Liensberger, with a -0.22sec deficit, went immediately into the red, but put in a gritty bottom third to pull into second, thus depriving Shiffrin a medal as she slipped to fourth as the horns blew once more.

All eyes then turned to Rast, the fastest in the first run and the last of the top 30 to start.

The Swiss racer kicked out of the start gate with a 0.80sec advantage and maintained her rhythmic momentum magnificently throughout on the Ulli Maier course for another 1-2 for the ski mad country.

Rast's victory saw her become the first Swiss winner of the women's slalom since Vreni Schneider in 1991 - the last time the world championships were held in Saalbach.

Laurence St-Germain became Canada's first women's slalom world champion for 63 years when she won a shock gold in the last world champs in Courchevel/Meribel in 2023.

But the 30-year-old, who is still yet to claim a World Cup podium, was one of a large number of skiers who failed to finish the first leg.

Q.Moore--ThChM