Curse broken: Croatian writes history

A youngster has made Croatian skiing history in the women's slalom at the World Cup in Semmering. With a daring ride, Zrinka Ljutic took her country's first victory in almost 18 years.

29 December 2024

From: never

Six podium places, four times in the thankless second place - and now finally at the top: Zrinka Ljutic fulfilled a dream on Sunday afternoon and was able to celebrate the first World Cup victory of her career. The 20-year-old prevailed in a thrilling final ahead of the German Lena Dürr (+1,75 seconds) and the Austrian Katharina Liensberger (+1,85), who had worked her way up four places in the deciding race. In doing so, she also broke the Croatian World Cup curse: since Janica Kostelic's giant slalom victory in Are, Sweden on March 18, 2006, the women's skiers from the Balkans had not achieved a World Cup success.

Despite a lead of 0,51 seconds over Dürr, Ljutic did not sit back in the decision and attacked fully. After a brilliant first sector, the youngster almost got in his own way and was almost eliminated shortly after the second intermediate time. However, Ljutic caught herself in time and finished her run - including the best time in the second run. "It's unbelievable," she enthused in an interview with the ORF"I was really relaxed at the start, I wanted to attack. The slope was already a bit broken due to the tracks. And it was a bit close at one or two gates," she laughed. "But I'm really happy."

Setback for Peterlini

Only one Azzurra, Martina Peterlini, was represented in the second run. After the first run, the Trentino native was aiming for a place in the top 10, and even the best result of her World Cup career - seventh place in the Jasna slalom in the 2020/21 season - was within reach. Peterlini got off to a solid start in the decisive race, but was unable to keep up with the best time set by German Emma Aicher. Shortly after the second intermediate time, the 27-year-old tangled and fell, but eventually made it to the finish area under her own steam.

Martina Peterlini was eliminated in the second round. © APA / GEORG HOCHMUTH

For Peterlini’s teammates, however, in the first round final station. The South Tyrolean Vera Tschurtschenthaler (33rd/+3,90), Marta Rossetti (32nd/+3,73), Lucrezia Lorenzi (36th/+4,09), Lara della Mea (41st/+4,42) and Giorgia Collomb (43rd/+4,58) missed the final.

The women's competition continues on January 4th in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. On Saturday, the first giant slalom of the new year is scheduled (9.30:12.30 a.m./10.00:13.00 p.m.), and one day later there will be the next showdown in the slalom (XNUMX:XNUMX a.m./XNUMX:XNUMX p.m.).