German skier Rebensburg victorious in Maribor
Viktoria Rebensburg pipped Ana Drev to World Cup giant slalom victory in Maribor on Saturday as Lindsey Vonn crashed out but held onto the overall lead. It was a second giant slalom win in a row for German Rebensburg after also pushing Drev into second place in Flachau. The final difference between the two was just 00.32seconds, with Liechtenstein's Tina Weirather completing the podium. Vonn's dramatic fall did not prove too costly in the end as her closest overall World Cup rival Lara Gut also made a mess of her second run and failed to finish. American Vonn, who pecialises in the speed events, went into the second run on Saturday in 12th place. The 31-year-old still looked set to pick up enough points to easily maintain her position at the top of the overall standings, but she made a costly mistake halfway down the mountain and flew off the course. Austrian Gut, however, was unable to capitalise and she remains 55 points adrift in the race for the World Cup title. Michaela Kirchgasser spent a long time at the top of the time-sheets thanks to a fast second run, but the 30-year-old knew that the leaders from the opening run were always likely to surpass her at the top. This weekend is the first visit to Slovenia for the women's World Cup this season. In the absence of Tina Maze, who is taking a year off, Drev gave the home supporters plenty to cheer with a storming second run to take the lead. Weirather narrowly missed out on overtaking Drev as she crossed the line just 00.02 off the Slovenian's time. Penultimate skiier Rebensburg though flew down the piste to take the 12th World Cup win of her career and her second this month, as first run leader Eva-Maria Brem finished fourth. "Everything is going well at the moment but this race was rather chaotic," Rebensburg said. "I just decided to risk everything and it worked." The 26-year-old is now only 32 points behind Brem in the giant slalom discipline standings and has moved up to third overall. The women's World Cup continues in Maribor on Sunday with a slalom race that gives the technical specialists the perfect opportunity to get back into overall contention.
