The China Mail - New Zealand's Robinson wins Copper Mountain World Cup giant slalom

Robinson, who turns 24 on Monday, had a two-run total time of 1min 58.91sec to beat Austrian Julia Scheib by 96-hundredths of a second.

Norway's Thea Louise Stjernesund finished third, matching Robinson's top time in the second leg to move up from fifth after the first run and claim her podium place 1.08sec behind the winner.

US superstar Mikaela Shiffrin, who has extended her record for World Cup victories to 103 this season with a pair of slalom wins, settled for 14th.

"It was definitely a day of two runs," Robinson said. "The first run I felt so in control and so smooth. And the second run just felt so out of control and felt like I was just recovering the whole time.

"So I was pretty shocked to see the big green light at the finish, but obviously I'm so grateful."

Robinson admitted that she wasn't feeling very confident coming into the week after an eighth place finish in the first giant slalom of the season last month at Soelden, which was won by Scheib.

"I honestly felt pretty gutted about Soelden and I think in the past I'd always let poor prior performances affect my performance," Robinson said.

"So I really wanted to prove it to myself that, OK, Soelden wasn't great but you can pick yourself up ... so I'm really proud of myself that I could break through that."

Shiffrin, tied for 18th after the first run, delighted home fans with a storming second effort that briefly vaulted her to the lead but she was ultimately 2.08sec off the pace.

The American remains atop the overall standings with 268 points, 50 ahead of Albanian Lara Colturi with Scheib in third on 180.

Scheib leads the giant slalom standings with 180 points with Robinson second on 132.

The alpine World Cup circuit is back at Copper Mountain this year for the first time since 2001. Men skied a super-G and giant slalom on Thursday and Friday and women will conclude the week's action on Sunday with a slalom.

X.Gu--ThChM