Shiffrin claims highly-charged slalom gold in Flachau

Mikaela Shiffrin overtook Marcel Hirscher with an emotional 68th World Cup win in the Flachau night slalom.

Shiffrin on snow means records falling and the tight triumph was her 100th World Cup medal. She also became the first female skier to win eight World Cup medals at a single resort.

But in the last slalom before the first anniversary of her father Jeff's tragic death, the greatest of all time had no truck with the history books.

"I definitely wasn't thinking about records," said the American.

"There's so much energy. It's just been building up and it all just went out on that run. What can I say, that’s cool."

Piste conditions were fast in a race known for its raucous floodlit atmosphere and nowhere on the World Cup circuit was a lack of fans more incongruous.

But there was a reassuringly familiar sight of Shiffrin on top as she added to her tally of three wins on the lightly-raced Hermann Maier slope by a margin of 0.19s.

The 25-year-old's first run effort of 54.04 was 0.08 quicker than the rest, with her close friend Wendy Holdener next fastest.

Austria's Katharina Liensberger looked for all the world like she'd clinched a maiden World Cup gold and Austria's first victory of the season with a searing 53.74 second run.

Then came Shiffrin with pure aggression off the rollers and a fast finish for a winning second clocking of 53.88.

She said: "I just wanted to ski well. This slope has kind of tripped me up the last several years. I just wanted to ski strong,

"It was really fun."

Shiffrin is not contesting the overall World Cup title - skipping speed races ahead of the likely defence of her super-G title at February's World Championships.

The chase for the most coveted Crystal Globe is left to Petra Vlhova, who looked tired after a weekend of speed racing and finished fourth, and Swiss Michelle Gisin.

Shiffrin sits third in the race for the overall and slalom titles. The women's World Cup resumes with a giant slalom in Vlhova's home country, Slovenia, on Saturday.