Brignone wins World Cup combined as Shiffrin crashes out

ALTENlMARKT, Austria: Italian specialist Federica Brignone clung on in the slalom run to win the World Cup combined event in Austria on Sunday having romped the Super-G run that took out a third of the field.

In overcast conditions on a tight, challenging first run American superstar Mikaela Shiffrin, her key rival Petra Vhlova and 14 other competitors failed to complete the treacherous first run.

Shiffrin pulled out of the ultra-fast and fog-blighted downhill on the same daunting Kälberloch slope on Saturday, making Sunday´s Super-G her first ever run in Altenmarkt.

This was Brignone´s third combined win on the World Cup circuit and it firms up a good run of form that has lifted her to second in the overall World Cup standings.

"That last part of the course is really difficult because you just can´t allow yourself to go too fast due to how technical it is, this was a tactical win," said Brignone on 565pts, 52 ahead of Vlhova but 261 behind the American.

Swiss double combined world champion Wendy Holdener almost did enough to catch the Italian reducing her half second deficit from the first run to 0.15sec on the second.

Hodener is fourth in the overall standings.