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Marta Bassino held off Federica Brignone for Italy’s one-two finish in the opening run of a close race in the women’s World Cup giant slalom on Saturday.
Bassino was 0.03 seconds faster than her teammate, finishing within two-tenths of a second from the lead with New Zealand’s Alice Robinson third and Norway’s Thea Louise Stanesson fourth.
Mikaela Shiffrin will miss this weekend’s race while recovering from a left knee injury, meaning the American star could lose the lead in the overall World Cup standings to Lara Gut-Behrami.
The Swiss skier won the last GS and leads Shiffrin with 95 points. Gut-Behrami needs to win the race to overtake the American, but he is ninth in the rankings after the opening run and can regain 0.61 over Bassino in the following.
Shiffrin will also miss Sunday’s slalom in Andorra, as her return to racing remains uncertain. Gut Behrami does not compete in that field.
Shiffrin injured her knee 15 days ago while landing from a jump on a downhill slope in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, and crashed into a safety net.
Other leading giant slalom racers absent are Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova and Canada’s Valerie Grenier, both of whom recently suffered season-ending injuries.
Saturday’s race saw Bassino show his best as the Italian skier aims for his first podium of the season.
“It was a solid run. You need a feel for skiing. I think Bib 1 helped me a lot,” she said.
Bassino was the junior world GS champion 10 years ago. Although she won the World Cup title in this event in 2021, she has only won one World Cup race in the past three years.
“It hasn’t been an easy time, with a lot of mistakes and a lot of ups and downs. So I’m just putting all the pieces together,” said Bassino, who won the super-G world title in France a year ago.
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