Lillehammer, Norway: Mikaela Shiffrin extended her overall World Cup lead with an imperious display to win the slalom at the World Cup finals in Lillehammer on Tuesday, although Emma Aicher pushed their title fight into the last race of the season.
Shiffrin powered to her ninth slalom win of the campaign to take an 85-point advantage in the overall standings over Aicher into Wednesday’s closing giant slalom. German youngster Aicher finished third to keep her hopes alive, although she was pipped to second on the day by Wendy Holdener, denying her a potentially crucial 20 World Cup points.
Aicher had cut Shiffrin’s overall lead to just 45 points over the weekend in the speed events, leaving the title up for grabs heading into the slalom and Wednesday’s closing giant slalom. But American star Shiffrin now only needs to finish in the top 15 in the giant slalom to take the overall, after notching her 110th career World Cup win.
Shiffrin, who also won slalom gold at the Milan-Cortina Olympics, was in dominant form in the first run, taking a 1.10sec lead over Holdener to lay down the gauntlet to Aicher who was only fourth-quickest.
