Kathrin Zettel reached the clouds in Maribor on Sunday. After claiming her first win of the season in Saturday's World Cup giant slalom, the Austrian landed the first slalom victory of her Cup career, finishing with a two-run combined time of 1 minute, 42.98 seconds.

It looked as if Zettel's teammate Marlies Schild was poised for another slalom victory. Schild led the first run by more than a second but straddled a gate in the second. Tina Maze, ninth after the first run and almost two seconds back, prompted a deafening roar from the massive home crowd when she skied into first place in her second run, then held on to take the second step of the podium, .72 seconds behind Zettel.

World Cup slalom leader Maria Riesch, who has now finished on the podium in the last three races, including a second place Saturday for the first podium of her GS career, was third, 1.28 seconds back, and now leads Lindsey Vonn in the overall standings with 922 points to Vonn's 894. Vonn, whose first run was riddled with mistakes failed to qualify for the final in Sunday's slalom.

The gate set for the second run was considerably more open than the first and several racers capitalized on the space to find their speed while others - like Schild - met with bad luck. Zettel's luck - not to mention her talent for adjusting to the conditions - was as good as it gets.

"It's an amazing day," Zettel said. "I can't believe it. After the lead from Marlies in the first run, I didn't believe [it could happen]. It's wonderful. I'm flying now on cloud seven. I'll take it to the Olympics."

The race was the last slalom before the Olympics ... the only one remaining after that will be at World Cup finals in March in Garmisch.

Racers said the course set for the first run at Maribor was one of the turniest they've seen on the slalom circuit this season. Schild was surprised to come down more than a second in the lead ... especially considering the flat light and heavy snowfall. Conditions were bumpy for late racers in the second run, in which Maze (48.52 seconds) and Zettel (48.60 seconds) put down the fastest times.

"I can't believe it because Marlies was in front of me the first run. I had to take full risk and ski well," said Zettel, who, with her ninth podium of the season - her fifth in slalom - now trails Riesch in the slalom standings with 410 points to Riesch's 433. "I'm very proud today. [In] slalom [it] was a big wish for my heart to win one time."

Maze, who was disappointed with her 13th place in Saturday's GS after winning last year's race, said she didn't feel much pressure going into the second slalom run after finishing ninth in the first.

"The times were quite tight to the fourth place, [it was] was only three tenths," Maze said. "I thought I could improve to there with my good run. I was just trying to have fun on the slope and ski like I can."

Maze said that eight buses full of fans came from her nearby village - Crna - and she was clearly the star of the venue, with members of her family selling "Tina Maze" scarves outside of the stadium and the entire place chanting her name when it became clear that she would finish on the podium.

"I'm happy that I made home happy," Maze said. "It was a special race after yesterday's disappointment. I'm happy I could do that today."

Riesch, who now has three back-to-back podium finishes in tech events, was quick to remind everyone that a series of speed races are coming up and Vonn will be back on her game.
"Of course it's nice to be the leader but it's not the end of the season," Riesch said. "I think Lindsey could be hard to beat again in Cortina and St. Moritz. I took my chance here and made good results, but it's not the end of the season yet, so it's not good to think too much about [winning the overall] already."

As for slalom, Riesch said that the field is much more competitive this season and the battle for the slalom globe will a be a close one.

"In slalom I'm a little bit away from my performance last year because last year at this time I was winning four races in a row," Riesch said. "The fact that Marlies is back and back strong makes it more competitive. It's also Kathrin Zettel, Sandrine Aubert, my sister ... lots of people giving me a hard time. I'm a little bit away from my best performance ever. It's a tight race against Kathrin now. I hope I can still win the slalom globe."

The FIS Audi women's World Cup continues this weekend in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, with downhill, super G and GS races.

by Shauna Farnell
FISalpine.com
Sunday 17 January 2010