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Brignone wins world combined gold as Shiffrin skis out / Photo: © AFP
Brignone wins world combined gold as Shiffrin skis out
Italy's Federica Brignone claimed gold in the women's world alpine combined on Monday after hot favourite and defending champion Mikaela Shiffrin skied out of the slalom at the death.
Olympic combined bronze medallist Brignone was in pole after setting the fastest time in the morning's super-G, finishing 0.96 seconds ahead of the American star.
The Italian held her nerve superbly to lay down the second fastest slalom run for a winning aggregate of 1min 57.47sec.
Switzerland's Wendy Holdener, a two-time former world combined champion, who claimed Olympic silver in Beijing, claimed second place, at 1.62sec, with Austrian Ricarda Haaser rounding out the podium (+2.26).
Holdener's teammate and two-time Olympic champion Michelle Gisin could only finish 3.43sec off Brignone's pace.
All eyes in the slalom had been primed for Shiffrin, and she did not disappoint as she tore up the first two-thirds of the Roc de Fer piste, gaining quickly on Brignone's aggregate time.
She seemed set to go top of the leaderboard but straddled the penultimate gate.
It means Shiffrin will have to wait until Wednesday's super-G in her bid to bag a record-equalling seventh post-WWII world individual gold. That would match Austrian Toni Sailer, Frenchwoman Marielle Goitschel and former Swedish racer Anja Paerson.
Shiffrin's dramatic exit left her mother Eileen holding her head in her hands in the finish area amid groans from the large crowd in the French resort.
The 27-year-old will hope there is no repeat of her disastrous outing at last year's Beijing Winter Olympics where she failed to finish the slalom, giant slalom and alpine combined -- three events in which she had been a keen favourite.
She also failed to get close to the podium in either the super-G and downhill.
That stumbling form has not continued on the World Cup circuit this season, however, with Shiffrin winning 11 races (including five slaloms) to come within one of Ingemar Stenmark's overall World Cup record for victories (86).
One notable absentee from the startlist was Slovakia's Petra Vlhova, who decided to sit out the combined to focus on next week's slalom and giant slalom.
The women's combined is the first of 13 medal events -- comprising six women's races, six men's races and one mixed team event -- at the biennial worlds in Meribel and Courchevel, which run until February 19.
M. Tschebyachkinchoy--BTZ
