LA THUILE, Italy: Nadia Fanchini upstaged Lindsey Vonn and Lara Gut to provide a home winner in the women’s alpine skiing World Cup downhill at La Thuile on Saturday.
The Italian set the standard early skiing ninth and was able to sit back and watch the two top skiers of the season try to match her.
Gut, who won an opening World Cup downhill on Friday, was well off the pace of 1min 24.80secs set on a course shortened due to strong winds on the upper section of the piste.
Vonn followed the Swiss skier and although she got close to taking her 77th World Cup win she came up fractionally 00.14secs short.
The American’s second place, however, was good enough for her to regain the World Cup overall lead ahead of arch-rival Gut, who tied for 11th place. She now has 1140 points giving her a lead of 43 points over Gut.
It also ensured that she wins the downhill title for the eighth time in her career, with just one race to come at St. Moritz in March.
Third place on the podium went to another Italian, Daniela Merighetti, at 00.72secs off the pace.
It was just the second World Cup victory in the career of Fanchini, the first coming in a super-G at Lake Louise in 2008 and came hard on the heels of her third place in Friday’s race.
Sunday sees the women contest a super-G at La Thuile with Italian skiers looking to win again following on Fanchini’s success and Vonn out to increase her lead over Gut as she chases another overall World Cup crystal globe.
Vonn’s social media gaffe
Apologizing for a gaffe on social media, Lindsey Vonn had little to celebrate after clinching a record 20th World Cup crystal globe title Saturday.
A day earlier, Vonn posted a video of an angry outburst in which she destroyed her bindings with a hammer following a race where one of her skis detached.
Vonn spent the night drafting an apology with her Los Angeles-based agent and called Head group chairman Johan Eliasch personally.
Still, Vonn bounced back to finish second Saturday and wrap up the season-long downhill championship.
Nadia Fanchini of Italy won with a 0.14-second margin ahead of Vonn in a race that was shortened due to strong winds.
Italy’s Daniele Merighetti finished third.
Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark held the previous record of 19 globes.
