ASPEN, Colo.—Sarka Zahrobska got her first World Cup victory Sunday, taking the slalom in a combined time of 1:39.32 to beat Austrian Nicole Hosp.
The Czech beat Hosp by .23 seconds in blustery, icy conditions. Tanja Poutianinen of Finland was third in 1:40.29.
Zahrobska had three second-place finishes and two thirds in her 114 previous World Cup starts since 2002.
“That’s what made it a big day for me,” Zahrobska said. “I had finished second a lot. I’m glad to have won.”
Lindsey Vonn was the top American, taking fourth with a time of 1:40.73 in a solid followup to her slalom victory at Levi, Finland, earlier this month. Fellow American Julia Mancuso was disqualified after missing a gate near the end of the first run.
Vonn, who bruised her left knee two weeks ago in training, also finished fourth in Saturday’s giant slalom, a personal best.
“I seem to have a problem with fourth place here in Aspen,” Vonn said. “I keep trying to do something for my home crowd and it’s not working out so well. I feel I did well. Considering everything with my knee injury, I’m happy just to be here.”
Vonn said she may have been too conservative in her first run, in part because of the lingering effects of her knee injury.
“I just wasn’t confident because I had terrible warmups this morning and my knee was hurting quite a lot,” Vonn said. “I tried as hard as I could, to go for it, in the second run but I got a huge head wind in the middle section. It was blowing directly at me and I had a really hard time. But I kept fighting.”
About halfway through the first run, winds gusting to 60 mph toppled a tower holding a finish-line banner, forcing about a 15-minute delay to allow race officials to put a marker back in place.
“The course was really hard,” Zahrobska said. “The first part was difficult because of the ice. The visibility wasn’t so good either because of the blowing snow. The race was tough for me, but I didn’t fall.”
For the U.S. team, Sterling Grant (29th) and Hailey Duke (21st) made their first World Cup finals with a top-30 finish.
Sarah Schleper of nearby Vail, who missed a top 10 finish in the giant slalom Saturday by less than three-tenths of a second, withdrew from the slalom prior to the race because of back soreness.
