Rebensburg wins as Shiffrin suffers rare slip

ROME: After missing two weeks with the flu, German Viktoria Rebensburg made a thunderous return on Tuesday, winning the giant slalom in Kronplatz, Italy, as American Mikaela Shiffrin made a rare mistake.

The enforced rest did Rebensburg good. After missing races in Bad Kleinkirchheim and Cortina d’Ampezzo, the 2010 Olympic champion, delivered two solid runs to finish in a combined time of 2min 6.19sec and edge Norwegian Ragnhild Mowinckel by just 0.03sec and Italian Federica Brignone by 0.66sec.

With her third victory of the season, the German is hitting form as the Winter Olympics, in Pyeongchang next month, approach. Of her 16 career World Cup wins, 14 have come in the giant slalom.

Rebensburg also pushed Shiffrin off the top spot in the giant slalom standings. The American still holds a colossal lead in the overall table. Shiffrin, normally so sure, fell on the first run and failed to finish for the second straight race after missing a gate on Sunday in the super G in Cortina.

Mowinckel took only the second podium place of her career but was agonisingly close to her first victory.The Norwegian had the fastest first run and was faster at the final check point in the second run, but finished weakly to lose narrowly.