Federica Brignone, fantastic comeback encore

Federica Brignone makes an encore

Federica Brignone has granted an encore. Twenty-four hours after her first victory in the Mont Tremblant giant slalom, the 33-year-old champion from Valle d’Aosta granted a resounding encore in the second race among the wide gates scheduled on the Canadian track. And this time her feat è even more è beautiful: after an interlocutory sixth place in the first run, the tiger from La Salle went wild in a second part of the race heavily conditioned by the blizzard of snow and wind that raged minute after minute, downhill after downhill.

As her frightened rivals pulled the handbrake, Brignone threw her toes into the valley, attacking every unfortunate gate that came in front of her, until she routed the competition for a 2’11″95 that allows her to overtake Sofia Goggia with 23 triumphs to lead the list of multiple Italian winners in the cup.

Behind her it was a vacuum, with only Lara Gut-Behrami limiting the damage, but trailing by 33 hundredths, while Mikaela Shiffrin è had to settle for third place at 39 hundredths, with Clara Direz fourth and Petra Vlhova fifth. The Italian day was enriched in the top-10 by the presence of Marta Bassino, eighth, and Sofia Goggia, tenth and once again with the best in the specialty. Important points also for Elisa Platino, 20th, and Roberta Melesi, 21st, while Asja Zenere, Beatrice Sola and Laura Pirovano did not qualify for the second run.

The overall standings are updated with Shiffrin on 470 points, followed by Vlhova with 391, Gut-Behrami with 325 and Brignone with 320; the giant slalom standings see a challenge between Gut (325) and Brignone (320). The circuit returns to Europe next week with two super-giants and a downhill on the St. Moritz slope.