Italian skier Marta Bassino wins World Cup downhill title

CRANS MONTANA, Switzerland – Italian skier Marta Bassino used all of her technical skills to dominate the downhill at the Women’s World Cup on Saturday, taking her first win in the sport’s fastest event.

Bassino, a giant slalom specialist who won last year’s super-G world title, gained more time than the others on the winding opening and final sections of the Mont Lachot course, finishing 0.54 seconds behind teammate Federica Brignone. I scored the goal.

“I’m really, really happy. It’s my first downhill win, so it’s amazing,” Bassino said. “It’s really emotional.”

She had already done well in Friday’s shortened downhill on the same course, starting 21st and running clean to finish fifth.

“I think it was a great run,” Bassino said after the win. “We did everything we saw and analyzed in the video.”

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Lara Gut Behrami, who won Friday’s race, increased her lead in the overall standings to 165 points over the absent Mikaela Shiffrin, finishing 1.11 behind in third place.

Shiffrin is nursing a left knee injury and will not be back on the track earlier than the second weekend in March for the GS and slalom in Sweden.

Gut-Behrami will have a chance to extend his lead in Sunday’s super-G.

“Three races in three days is not easy.” “I’m really happy with my skiing,” said Gut-Behrami, who is aiming for his second overall title after winning in 2016. “The energy level is quite low, so we have to find something for tomorrow, to find new energy.”

Bosnian skier Elvedina Muzafelija, wearing number 28, got off to a slow start, but finished 4th, 1.22 seconds behind Bassino, and cracked the top 10 for the first time in her career.

Bassino has finished on the podium just once in 37 World Cup downhill starts, finishing runner-up in a race in Bulgaria four years ago.

Racing in spring-like temperatures on Saturday, Bassino got off to the fastest start and set the best times at the first two checkpoints. She could not quite match the downhill specialists while skiing the straighter middle sections, but once again showed unparalleled pace in the lower part of the course.

“I think I was able to make the right turns in the right way, and I tried to be fast and have confidence in the snow,” Bassino said. “I was trying to go fast on the flat parts to feel the speed. I did really well on the last part as well.”

The Italian skier added that it would be an advantage to start early wearing number 3.

“I think it helped a little bit because the snow slowed down a little bit,” she said.

Bassino became the sixth winner in six downhill races this season. There are also two final races of the season scheduled over two weeks in Norway and Austria.

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A day after winning Friday’s race, Gut-Behrami added another 60 points to her season record, putting her 19 points ahead of downhill leader Sofia Goggia.

Goggia had won the downhill title for the past three years, but had to end his season prematurely after breaking two bones in his right foot in a fall during training 12 days ago.

Gut-Behrami also tops the super-G and giant slalom rankings, which is strikingly similar to the men’s World Cup, where Swiss standout Marco Odermatt leads four different positions.