Sarah Hector showed a strong performance in challenging winter conditions and leads after the first run. © ANSA / Pontus Lundahl

Hector on the way to his first home win – Gut-Behrami on course for a ball

Sara Hector leads after the first run of the World Cup giant slalom in Åre, Sweden. It would be the Swede's first home win. Meanwhile, Lara Gut-Behrami could already win the race for the small crystal ball.

March 09, 2024

From: on

Hector, who started with number 1, showed a strong performance in the penultimate giant slalom of the season in light snowfall on Saturday morning and is comfortably leading the Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami (+1 seconds) after the first round. She already has a hand on the small giant slalom ball. The overall World Cup leader from Switzerland is 0,61 hundredths of a second ahead of her closest competitor Federica Brignone. Brignone, in third place, is 55 seconds behind Hector.

Gut-Behrami took a 135-point lead with him to the far north for the penultimate giant slalom of the World Cup winter. Second place would definitely be enough for her to secure the small crystal ball in this discipline for the first time before the season finale in Saalbach. The practical decision could also already be made in the overall World Cup given that the Swiss is more than 2 points ahead of Brignone.

Lara Gut-Behrami is on track. © APA/NTB / GEIR OLSEN

Things didn't go well for Elisa Platino. The woman from Merano had a hard time from the start. As the time went on she got into the race a little better, but she couldn't do better than 25th place. This means that she is at least in the decisive second round of the best 2. This starts at 30:13.30 p.m. With the SportNews live ticker you are there first hand.