Winter sports news - Mikaela Shiffrin wins World Cup opener slalom at Levi

ByJen Offord

Updated 17/11/2018 at 14:43 GMT

Mikaela Shiffrin began the season with a comfortable win in the opening World Cup slalom at Levi on Saturday.

The double Olympic champion completed her first run in 45.06 on a windy morning in Finland.

Shiffrin took a 0.14s advantage over 2018 Olympic slalom champion Sweden's Frida Hansdotter, who finished the first run in second place.

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Shiffrin makes winning start to season

Slovakian Petra Vlhova, who took home a silver medal in the last world cup team event, finished her first run in third place 0.59s behind the American.

In the second run, the 23-year-old completed in a slower time of 47.55, but won with an overall lead of 0.58s.

Shiffrin said of her second run: "I had a little bit of a scary moment on the top of the pitch but kept fighting.

"It's the first race of the season, so there's some nerves, there's some excitement. Nobody knows how fast they are. It's always a really nice challenge."

Shiffrin: I felt good, it was a lot of fun

In fact it was Bernadette Schild who completed the second run in the fastest time of 46.91s, which lifted the Austrian from 12th to third.

A slow run by Hansdotter saw her bumped to fourth place and Vlohva took second place.

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