Sandrine Aubert won the ladies' slalom at the World Cup finals in Are, Sweden.

It was the French racer’s second consecutive win after her maiden vitory at Ofterschwang, Germany.

The 26-year-old thoroughly deserved her triumph with an aggressive and free-flowing second descent of 56.96, for an overall time of 1:49.23.

Aubert stretched every sinew in her body to hold on after a few wobbles in the upper section to grab first by 56/100 from Fanny Chmelar who took second.

Sarka Zahrobska, who led after the first run, shared third with home racer Therese Borssen.

It was billed as Lindsey Vonn versus Maria Riesch, with the German out to win the event so that she could stand proudly on top spot on the podium in the double guise as race winner and World Cup champion in the discipline.

However, the contest never materialised as the American overall World Cup title winner made a major error in the mid-section and as she pushed to regain time almost skied out to finish down in 18th.

Slalom World Champion Riesch was tentative in the top section and could never recover, ending up in fifth.

Three Swiss racers, Denise Fierabend, Lara Gut and Aline Bonjour vied for the lead in quick succession early on, with the latter holding top spot at the midway point in a time of 57.14.

Home pride was at stake for Frida Hansdotter who skied aggressively to dive into the lead by 53/100.

However, it was a brief lead as Chmelar of Germany got the feel of the spring snow to go first by over half a second.

She was able to keep Manuela Moelgg at bay and although Anja Paerson was fired up in front of the home support she could not hold her form and faded badly to finish 11th.

It was left to Borssen to produce the biggest cheer of the day after a thrilling run to claim second for a time.

Maria Riesch’s younger sister Susanne was in a good position at the midway but skied out when she mis-read a turn.

All eyes were on Zahrobska but the Czech Republic racer lacked the smoothness of her first run and never really looked like wrestling the lead back from the delighted Aubert.

Friday, 13 March 2009 11:28

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