Germany: Italian Federica Brignone won the women´s World Cup downhill at Garmisch-Partenkirchen on Saturday with comeback queen Lindsey Vonn failing to finish.
Brignone defeated her fellow Italian Sofia Goggia, who suffered a dislocated shoulder during her run, by just one hundredths of a second.
The veteran Brignone, who celebrated the first downhill victory of her career last week, finished in one minute and 35.83 seconds to narrowly deny Goggia. Switzerland´s Corinne Suter finished 0.19 seconds back in third.
The race was overshadowed by Nina Ortlieb´s horrific high speed crash, with the Austrian screaming in pain before being helicoptered off the course. The Austrian Ski Federation later announced: “Unfortunately suspicions of a serious injury are confirmed with the x-ray test detecting a lower right leg fracture”.
Brignone, who finished third behind Goggia in the downhill at Cortina d´Ampezzo last Saturday, overcame slow times in training this week to triumph in Germany.
“I tried everything and did well today. In training I didn´t do each split well, but today I put the pieces of the puzzle together,” she told Germany´s ZDF network. “I didn´t think I´d be in first today. There´s no secret recipe. I´ve trained a lot with my brother in these conditions, on the long curves. It´s five years of training and I´m very happy.”