World Cup in Kranjska Gora
Alpine ace Dürr second: “Perfect start to the new year”
Lena Dürr took second place in the slalom in Kranjska Gora. photo
© Giovanni Maria Pizzato/AP/dpa
Skier Lena Dürr begins the new year as she ended the old one: with a podium finish in the Slalom World Cup. For technology specialist Linus Straßer, however, a series ends.
Lena Dürr defied the difficult external conditions and extended her subscription to podium places. In sleet and on bumpy slopes, the 32-year-old from SV Germering competed in the Alpine slalom.World Cup in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, once again in second place.
Dürr was only beaten by Olympic champion Petra Vlhova from Slovakia by 0.72 seconds. Surprisingly, Amelia Josephine “AJ” Hurt from the USA came third, improving by 13 places in the second round.
“It was a really difficult day today. I’m super happy that it turned out exactly the way it did. It was a perfect start to the new year. It can continue like this,” said the third place in the 2023 World Cup Slalom.
Fourth podium place for Dürr
US superstar Mikaela Shiffrin didn’t make it to the second round. The 93-time World Cup winner stopped in the first run before the second timing and was eliminated. The 28-year-old had won three of the five slalom races this winter.
It was Dürr’s fourth podium finish of the current winter, after coming second and third in Levi, Finland, and second again in the last race of last year in Lienz (Austria). Dürr and her competitors had to struggle with worsening track conditions, especially in the second round in Kranjska Gora. “It was clear that the second fight would be a good fight and I’m really happy with how I handled it,” said Dürr. She was “happy that I was able to achieve this even under such difficult conditions.”
Jessica Hilzinger from Oberstdorf reached the second run of a Slalom World Cup for the first time this season and finished in 20th place. Emma Aicher (Mahlstetten) started the second round in 15th place, but was eliminated. The day before, she achieved her best World Cup result in this discipline when Valerie Grenier from Canada won the giant slalom by finishing 15th.
Straßer narrowly misses the podium
While Dürr continued on the road to success, Linus Straßer’s run of podium finishes at the Slalom World Cup in Adelboden, Switzerland, came to an end. After a second and two third places in recent years, the 31-year-old from Munich took fourth place. After two runs, Straßer was 0.30 seconds behind winner Manuel Feller from Austria, but celebrated his best slalom result of the current season. Atle Lie McGrath from Norway came second ahead of the Austrian Dominik Raschner.
“With the emotions now, it hurts a bit. I have to say I’m disappointed,” said Straßer on ARD. After the first run he was already in fourth place and then wanted to attack for a podium place. Ultimately, 0.07 seconds were missing from third place. “I really wanted to be on the podium. Ultimately, I could have skied better in both races,” he confessed and added: “In the end, it’s also a good sign if you’re disappointed with fourth place.” In the two Slalom World Cups so far this winter, Straßer had finished ninth in each. Sebastian Holzmann from Oberstdorf fell back one position in the second run and took 13th place.
The day before, the exceptional Swiss driver Marco Odermatt continued his impressive winning streak in Adelboden. After his successes in 2022 and 2023, the Olympic champion and world champion also won the giant slalom on one of the most demanding slopes of the Alpine World Cup and thus achieved a home hat trick. The Allgäu parallel world champion Alexander Schmid took tenth place.