Lucky number 13 for Hirscher as Shiffrin rules slalom
Marcel Hirscher took Saturday's concluding World Cup giant slalom to equal the record of 13 wins in a single campaign, while Mikaela Shiffrin crushed the field in the women's slalom at Are. The 29-year-old Hirscher entered a select club containing only two others members as he matched the number of wins achieved by skiing legends Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden in 1978-79 and Austrian Hermann Maier in 2000-2001. "It is something where I personally thought that with just two disciplines, it is not possible to reach this mark," said Hirscher, a technical specialist. The victory was Hirscher's sixth in a World Cup giant slalom this season, the Austrian has also won seven slaloms. In 24 hours he could set a new outright record if he wins his favoured slalom, which brings the curtain down on the 2017/2018 season on Sunday. "This season is crazy, with this broken ankle (last August) I thought is it a career-ending injury? No, but has the season gone away? I thought, maybe. I thought the Olympics, maybe. But (can I win) the big crystal globe? No chance." Last month's Olympic gold medallist in the giant slalom and combined was half a second clear of his rivals after the first leg despite a costly mistake, and Hirscher did not buckle on the second run as he chased his place in skiing history. The Austrian was followed home in his 58th career World Cup success by Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen, quickest in the second leg, at 0.23sec with France's Victor Muffat-Jeandet at 0.26sec. Hirscher arrived at the Swedish ski resort of Are for the World Cup finals this week already assured of his fifth giant slalom crystal globe. He has also secured a record seventh overall World Cup title in a memorable season in which he secured his first Olympic title at his third Games. - Shiffrin untouchable - Women's overall champion Shiffrin, who had already clinched the slalom title, completed her two runs in a combined time of 1min 46.42sec to finish 1.48sec ahead of Wendy Holdener of Switzerland with Swede Frida Hansdotter. The gap between Shiffrin and Holdener in second was larger than the gap between Holdener and the 12th-place finisher, another Swiss Denise Feierabend. American Shiffrin led by just under half a second after the first leg, but the drama in the second run occurred lower down the standings as Slovak Petra Vlhova, third after the first run, collapsed to 11th to drop from second in the event standings to fourth. Holdener jumped up to second while Hansdotter nipped past Vlohva to take third by two points. For Shiffrin this was a seventh World Cup victory of the season, and 32nd in her career, in her favourite event. In total, Shiffrin, who turned 23 last Tuesday, has won 43 World Cup races. She missed a medal in the slalom in the Olympics where she finished fourth but she did leave Pyeongchang with a gold in the giant slalom and silver in the combined. Shiffrin clinched the World Cup slalom title for the fifth time with victory last week in Ofterschwang in Germany. She is also assured of her second overall title.
