Austria's world champion Marlies Schild maintained her perfect start to the women's slalom World Cup season with her fourth win out of four here on Thursday. Slovenia's Tina Maze took second with American teenager Mikaela Shiffrin in third. With her 31st World Cup win Schild is now only three wins away from equalling Swiss star Vreni Schneider's record haul of 34. "Everyone's talking about the record, I hope to be able to equal it and then pass it soon," said the 30-year-old.
Schild dominated the action with a lead of more than half a second on her closest pursuer Maze after the first leg to go on and prevail by 79 hundredths of a second after the second run. "The aim of winning all the slaloms during the season is still poassible, but obviously it's going to be difficult," the winner added. "I hope I can continue to ski as well as I'm doing at the moment."
Maze was going one better after her third place at Flachau last week but the exploit of the day belonged to Shiffrin who at 16 was climbing the World Cup podium for the first time at only her eighth attempt. "My name is Mikaela Shiffrin, I'm 16 and I come from Vail in the United States," she announced to the post-race press conference. "I worked really hard to get this result, I've watched my favourite skiers for the past ten years and now I find myself on the podium," she said, smiling.