Madrid, December 3 (EFE).- The Italian Federica Brignone repeated Saturday’s victory and won this Sunday the second of the two giants of the Alpine Ski World Cup scheduled for this weekend in the Canadian resort of Mont Tremblant , which resolved chaotically. second test marked by strong wind, snowfall and very poor visibility.

Brignone took his twenty-third victory in the regularity event and, 24 hours later, improved his own record as the oldest winner of a giant – at 33 years and four months – by winning, after finishing sixth in the first race, with a time of two minutes, eleven seconds and 95 hundredths. Exactly 33 less than the Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami, second this Sunday; and with 39 hundredths ahead of the American Mikaela Shiffrin, who completes the podium and continues to lead the general classification of the World Cup.

Slovakia’s Petra Vhlova, who was in control after the first run, was one of the main losers in a race that was resolved amid weather conditions that, had they occurred at the start of the second run , would most likely have caused another cancellation; a weekend during which none of the three scheduled men’s events could take place.

Vhlova – with the twenty-third time in the decisive heat won by Brignone – had to settle for fifth place in a race in which, with luck opposed to the Slovak, the Frenchwoman Clara Direz, thirteenth in the first act, advanced of nine places. . To finish in a surprising fourth place.

Despite the fact that many women are questionable, although women are likely to result in the main annual competition in the winter season, there is little time we have to wait for the very few men to be expected at the end of the week at the Vail-Beaver Creek World Resort. , in the USA. The heavy snowfall in this region of the Rockies, which prevented the preparation of the “Birds of Prey” – one of the highest tracks on the circuit – from being completed, as well as this time the strong wind, caused the cancellation of the supergiant planned for the aforementioned station from Colorado, where the two scheduled descents also had to be suspended on Friday and Saturday.

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This Sunday was the sixth cancellation of a men’s event so far this year, following the two also canceled downhills at Zermatt-Cervinia last month, on a track that starts in Switzerland and ends in Italy – where they did not could not compete either. a week later, women-; and the inaugural giant, which began taking place -the last Sunday in October- in Sölden (Austria) but was interrupted (and not resumed) due to strong wind.

To date, the men have only completed one race: the slalom in Gurgl (Austria), on November 18, where Manuel Feller achieved an Austrian “treble” ahead of Marco Schwarz and Michael Matt; the three skiers who lead not only the World Cup in the discipline, but also the overall regularity competition.

Vhlova dominated this Sunday’s event after the first round, a day after the first of the two giants won by Brignone, the only Italian to have captured the great Crystal Ball; becoming, at 33 years and four months, the oldest winner in this discipline.

A score which was improved by skiing the second round blindly, in one day. The third in the history of the Women’s World Cup: behind the American Lindsey Vonn, who won the last of her 82 victories at the age of 34; and the Austrian Elisabeth Görgl, who succeeded seven times, the last at 33 years and 304 days.

Brignone was already at the head of a luxury podium on Saturday, in which the last three winners of the competition were photographed, with Vhlova in second place and Shiffrin in third. And this Sunday she also appeared in another photo with two legends: the Swiss Gut -trained by the Spaniard José Luis Alejo-, winner of everything in alpine skiing, including (in 2016) the World Cup -in which she has 39 victories-, who advanced one place and finished second; and the super-predator from Vail (Colorado), which lost one place and settled for third place.

Vlhova had covered the first course in one minute, six seconds and 46 hundredths, five less than Shiffrin, a five-time World Cup winner who is seeking this season to equal the historic record of six final victories of another myth, the Austrian Annemarie. Moser, Pröll, the great champion of the 70s.

Gut, winner of the first two of the three events in this discipline contested so far this season – in Sölden and Killington (USA) – was in third position, 29 hundredths behind the Slovak; while Italian Marta Bassino (at 0.95) and Croatian Zrinka Ljutic (at 1.01) were fourth and fifth, respectively.

Brignone had achieved the sixth time in the first descent, a good distance – one second and 29 hundredths – from the winner of the big Crystal Ball three seasons ago. But, having nothing to lose, she went in blind and, with the best part of the second round, she took the greatest pleasure in making the most of the ambient chaos and partying again, 24 hours later.

Because the images preceding the start of the decisive test – with snowfall and very strong wind, especially in the upper part of the track – foreshadowed a new suspension.

But the decisive act, marked by very poor visibility for a large part of the descent, was contested. Even if, in the absence of the twelve best – while the Frenchman Direz, tenth on Saturday, had established the right reference – it was interrupted for a long time, to properly repair certain doors which threatened to fly (literally) into the air.

The latter competed practically without visibility. Direz was improved by Brignone; Ljutic did not do so and left happy with seventh place, behind Canadian Valérie Grenier.

Bassino, with the seventeenth time of the descent, falls to eighth place. Gut was 33 hundredths behind the Italian; Shiffrin, at 39; and Vlhova was once again the victim of misfortune in a season where she skis very well.

The Slovak remains second in the World Cup, although he is now 79 points short of the 470 points with which the best skier of all time leads the general ranking. Which, in turn, improves Gut by 145 units: third in the main relationship and leader of the giant ranking, with 325. Five more than the double winner of the weekend in Mont-Tremblant.

Adrian R. Huber

(c) EFE Agency