Robinson finished ninth at the FIS giant slalom world cup season-opener on the Rettenbach glacier in Solden, Austria, yesterday.
The course boasts a vertical drop of 370m and begins with a flatter section right out the start gate, before rolling over on to the steeper pitch on the ice fall of the glacier.
The course then has a crucial transition back on to the final flat section, where the athletes reach speeds of over 80kmh.
Conditions were nearly perfect with the glacier providing a firm and grippy snow surface.
Robinson was quick out of the gate in run one and skied aggressively through the top section, getting good purchase early in the turn.
After run one, Robinson was sitting in 13th, 2.34sec behind leader Federica Brignone, of Italy, who was an impressive 0.5sec ahead of her nearest competitor.
American great Mikaela Shiffrin was sitting in fifth place, 0.75sec off Brignone’s time.
Coming into run two, Robinson knew she had some work to do. She was the 19th athlete to drop and had a 0.17sec advantage over the current race leader.
Robinson utilised her trademark aggressive and dynamic style to increase her advantage to 0.19sec and take the provisional top spot with the 12 fastest skiers still to come.
Once all the athletes had completed their second run, Robinson finished in a respectable ninth place, 2.48sec behind winner Lara Gut-Behrami, of Switzerland.
Gut-Behrami put down an incredible second run to claim victory, run one leader Brignone finishing in second place, just 0.02sec behind Gut-Behrami.
Petra Vlhova, of Slovakia, rounded out the podium in third.
There is a now break in the giant slalom world cup schedule with the next race scheduled for November 26 in Killington, United States.
— Staff reporter
