REITERALM, AUSTRIA — Marlies Schild won the World Cup slalom Saturday despite losing time after losing control of her ski on her second run.
Schild, the defending World Cup champion, edged Nicole Hosp by 0.06 in difficult conditions because of heavy snowfall on the Gasselhoehe course. She finished in a two-run combined time of 1 minute, 55.53 seconds.
“I raced to the limits in my second run,” said Schild, who was third after the first run. “I made a horrendous error as I lost control over my ski. That cost a lot of speed, so it’s kind of a miracle that I still won.”
Chiara Costazza, who led after the first run, was 0.30 behind Schild to place third for her first World Cup podium finish.
“If Marlies had not made that error, she would have beaten me by more than a second,” Hosp said.
Resi Stiegler finished fourth in 1:55.94, while Slalom world champion Sarka Zahrobska was seventh, 0.65 behind Schild. Anja Paerson trailed by 1.51 to finish 12th.
“It was very hard to do well here under these circumstances,” Paerson said. “For me, it’s hard to concentrate on four disciplines, so that’s why my slalom performances aren’t that good these days.”
The slalom race originally was scheduled for Levi, Finland, but was moved to Austria because of poor snow conditions.
