Ledecka takes final super-G of season as Gut-Behrami clinches small globe

Ledecka ‘storms down’ Saalbach course to take super-G victory

Ester Ledecka claimed just the second super-G World Cup win of her career as she triumphed in Saalbach in the final race of the season in the discipline.

The Czech skier, who won Olympic gold in both skiing and snowboarding in 2018, topped the standings in the penultimate race of the Alpine Skiing World Cup season, ahead of Italy’s Federica Brignone.

Overall World Cup champion Lara Gut-Behrami came home in seventh place, but that was enough to add the small crystal globe in super-G to her collection.

“I’m super proud about that, super-G is a discipline I really love and to win the globe again is unbelievable,” Gut-Behrami said afterwards.

“Today was a challenging race because of the conditions, it’s incredible that we managed to have a course like that because it’s so warm. It was good to ski.”

Ledecka’s 1:15.94 was enough to put her in top spot ahead of the chasing pack.

She ultimately finished 0.28 seconds clear of Brignone, with Kajsa Vickhoff Lie of Norway taking third.

Brignone had been the most likely candidate to deny Gut-Behrami the small globe, but ended up finishing 30 points behind the Swiss skier.

The World Cup season draws to a close in Saalbach with Saturday’s downhill, where Gut-Behrami will look to add a third small globe to her overall crown.

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