Daily Times

Clenching her first, Marta Bassino screamed for joy and shouted “Si!” after crossing the finish line. Almost a year after her first career win, she led Federica Brignone for an Italian 1-2 finish in the season-opening women´s World Cup giant slalom Saturday. Bassino held on to her first-run lead to beat her teammate and defending overall World Cup champion by 0.14 seconds. “I am really proud of today and really happy about this start of the season. It´s really perfect,” Bassino said.

The result was a copy of her maiden triumph in the GS in Killington, Vermont, last season, when she also defeated Brignone. “We are a perfect couple,” Bassino said. “We have a great team. We worked very well this summer and I think this is the result.” Petra Vlhova posted the fastest second-run time and the Slovakian racer finished third, 1.13 off the lead.

Switzerland´s Michelle Gisin was 1.30 behind in fourth, while last year’s winner Alice Robinson had a costly mistake in her second run before finishing 12th.

Three-time overall champion Mikaela Shiffrin sat out the race. The American, who won here in 2014, tweaked her back in training two weeks ago and opted to rest.

Usually, many Italian fans travel to the Tyrolean Alps to visit the season opener, but no spectators were allowed this time as one of the precautionary health and safety measures amid the coronavirus pandemic.