Mikaela Shiffrin won the women's slalom in Flachau, Austria, the start of the Alpine Skiing World Cup.
The American was second after the first heat to her great rival Petra Vlakhova, but with a brilliant second descent, Shifrin finished first overall with a time of 1:49.35 minutes and claimed her fifth victory on this course.
The success is Shiffrin's 94th in the World Cup and 57th in the slalom event.
Olympic giant slalom champion Sarah Hector produced an excellent second run to finish on the podium in the slalom event for the first time in her career. The Swede remained third in the final standings, 1:11 seconds behind the winner.
In the general classification for the World Cup, Shiffrin is convincingly in the lead with 1029 points, followed by Vlakhova with 802, Federica Brignone from Italy with 787 and others. The prize money of the Flachau competition was a record for the ladies this season - 169,000 Swiss francs. In addition to 100 tons for the World Cup, Shiffrin secured a check for 59,500 francs. The small check for 29,500 remained for Vlakhova, and 17,000 for the third Sara Hector.
In the slalom discipline, Shifrin leads with 530 points ahead of Vlakhova with 505. /BGNES
