Alice Robinson of Team New Zealand fails to finish the course in the first run of the women's giant slalom at the FIS World Cup Finals, Sun Valley Resort. Photo / Getty Images
Alice Robinson of Team New Zealand fails to finish the course in the first run of the women's giant slalom at the FIS World Cup Finals, Sun Valley Resort. Photo / Getty Images
Alice Robinson has been denied a first alpine World Cup giant slalom crown after crashing out of the first leg at the World Cup finals today.
Italian rival Federica Brignone claimed the crown after needing to finish inside the top 13 to pip the Kiwi. Brignone was second behind Switzerland’sLara Gut-Behrami.
Robinson came into the final race of the season, at Sun Valley, Idaho, with a 20-point lead over Brignone and a chance to become the first New Zealander to win a World Cup crystal globe.
But after surviving an early wobble early on the first run she lost her balance on a deep turn on the bottom of the course and couldn’t recover - one of six skiers among the 28 who started that failed to finish the first leg.
Fuori Alice Robinson: a Federica Brignone per vincere la coppa di specialità basterà terminare 12ª dopo la seconda manche (andrebbe a +2 su Robinson) o anche solo 13ª (sarebbero in parità, ma vincerebbe Brignone per il maggior numero di vittorie) pic.twitter.com/VqE98AFr5c
That left Brignone, second-fastest in the first leg at 45-hundredths of a second.
The 34-year-old Italian needed to finish 13th or better in the second run to seize the giant slalom season crown and put in an impressive run to go into the lead before Gut-Behrami secured victory on the day.
