Killington (USA) (AFP)

First in Vermont: At 23, Italy's Marta Bassino won the giant slalom in Killington, where she shared the podium with fellow countryman Federica Brignone (2nd) and American Mikaela Shiffrin (3rd), still in check. giant at home.

For the first time in her career, Marta Bassino found herself alone in the starting cabin of a second round in the World Cup: it was she who closed the door thanks to her best time of the first round.

But on a shortened race because of a too strong wind on the top of the track, and limited to a few fifty seconds, the giant slalom has turned into a sprint with very small differences after the first pass - eleven skiers stood in one second, six in half a second.

It is therefore with the pressure and the obligation to carry out a big race that Bassino has launched on the "Super star" track in the program of the World Cup since winter 2016/17.

Especially since Brignone, winner last year in Vermont, had made a few minutes earlier an excellent pass after a first run below his expectations.

"I was good enough before the start of the second run, I just wanted to focus on myself, how I was skiing, and what I could do," she said in the finish area. all smiles.

"I'm so happy, I do not know what to say, I saw the green light (which indicates that she had the best time, Ed) at the finish, and it was incredible. that I won my first World Cup race, wow! ", she added.

Shiffrin had to settle for 3rd place, an 85th podium but still no victory at home in giant slalom. She took advantage, however, of the first run of the New Zealand Alice Robinson (17), winner at the opening in Sölden at the end of October, to regain control of the World Cup giant.

Undefeated in three races (2016, 2017 and 2018) between tight pickets in Killington, a hundred miles (170 km) from Burke Mountain Academy where she spent part of her childhood, Shiffrin will have the opportunity to sign her 62nd World Cup victory on Sunday in slalom.

Third in Sölden, Tessa Worley took fifth place in Killington, the first of a nice group shot of the French, since Coralie Frasse-Sombet finished thirteenth, just in front of Clara Direz.

© 2019 AFP