MARIBOR, Slovenia — Kathrin Zettel of Austria won a World Cup slalom for her second victory in as many days, and Maria Riesch of Germany took the overall lead from Vail’s Lindsey Vonn on Sunday by finishing third.
Zettel covered the course in a two-run combined time of 1 minute, 42.98 seconds to beat Tina Maze of Slovenia by 0.71 seconds. Maze had the fastest second-run time to jump from ninth.
Riesch finished 1.28 seconds back, while Vonn failed to qualify for the final run. Riesch leads the American by 28 points with 13 races left.
“It’s nice to be the leader, but there are a lot of speed races left and Lindsey will be hard to beat again,” Riesch said.
Vonn struggled throughout the first leg, losing the ideal line several times and never threatening to equal the pace of the leaders. She finished 4.55 seconds back in 46th place.
Vonn has failed to score points in three consecutive races. She crashed in Tuesday’s slalom in Flachau, Austria, and in Saturday’s GS in Maribor.
Vonn won three straight speed events last weekend, but has been struggling in technical events.
It was the first slalom title and eighth overall World Cup victory for Zettel, who also won Saturday’s giant slalom. She has nine podium finishes so far this season.
Kostelic comes out on top
WENGEN, Switzerland — Ivica Kostelic of Croatia won a World Cup slalom for his first victory this season and the 10th of his career.
Sweden’s Andre Myhrer finished in second place with Austria’s Reinfried Herbst third.
The Associated Press
