Gut-Behrami completes super-G hat-trick in Garmisch before worlds

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN: Swiss racer Lara Gut-Behrami completed her career hat-trick of World Cup super-G victories in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on Saturday in a perfect warm-up for next month's world championships.

After super-G victories in Garmisch in both 2016 and 2017, the 29-year-old bagged a third win after clocking 1min 15.70sec down the Kandahar course.

It was also a third straight super-G win this season for Gut-Behrami after previous first places in Crans Montana and St Anton.

"I am happy that I feel good and the trust in my skiing is there," said Gut-Behrami.

Despite her regular success on the Kandahar, Gut-Behrami revealed that she used to "hate" the notoriously icy course.

"It's down to me to ski fast here and it's nothing to do with the mountain," she added.

The victory consolidated the Swiss racer's place atop the World Cup standings in the discipline.

She leapfrogged teammate Michelle Gisin into second in the overall standings behind Slovakian Petra Vlhova, who bagged 26 valuable points with a joint 10th-placed finish.

Gut-Behrami was 0.68sec faster than second-placed Norwegian Kajsa Vickhoff Lie, 22, who earned the first podium finish of her career.

Canada's Maria-Michele Gagnon, a late runner with bib 29, took a surprise third, at 0.93sec, for only the fifth World Cup podium of her career and her first in super-G.

Gagnon knocked Sofia Goggia into fourth after the Italian came to the Bavarian Alps on the back of four straight downhill World Cup wins.

Warm weather forced Saturday's planned downhill race in Garmisch to be replaced by the super-G.

A second super-G race is planned for Sunday, the final women's event before the world ski championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo from February 8-21.