Queenstown's Alice Robinson finished in second place at the FIS Giant Slalom World Cup race in Jasna, Slovakia yesterday.
It has been just over a year since Robinson stood on the podium at an Alpine Ski Racing World Cup and the 19-year-old has worked incredibly hard to get back there. This is Robinson’s fourth World Cup podium.
"In the second run I just fully attacked and was so confident in what my plan was, and it felt easy. I came down with a big lead and I managed to stick until Petra [Vlhova] came down into first, then Mikaela [Shiffrin] came down after leading the first run into third so I ended up in second position which is a season-best result, so I am really happy," she said.
Great weather and a rhythmical, flowing course with just two delays suited Robinson today. Starting in bib 10, she came out of the start gate and charged through the first portion of the course in run one.
At the first split she was 0.42sec behind Shiffrin, of United States, and finished the first run just under a second behind Shiffrin in seventh position.
With the top 30 athletes’ start order flipped, Robinson was the 24th athlete to start in run two.
With an advantage of 0.70sec over the current leader, she ripped through the first five turns, increasing her advantage at every split.
She skied into the top spot, taking the lead by an impressive 1.18sec with six athletes still to take their second run.
Although Robinson had the fastest run two time, Vlhova, of Slovakia, who had two fantastic runs, had the fastest combined time and took the win on her home mountain.
Shiffrin rounded out the podium in third.
Robinson will be racing one last time this season, at the Giant Slalom World Cup Finals in Switzerland on March 21.
