Alpine Skiing-Hector leads giant slalom as Shiffrin and Vlhova falter

Swede Sara Hector emerged as the leader of the women's giant slalom after the event's first run in Slovenia's Kranjska Gora on Saturday following poor runs by overall World Cup leader Mikaela Shiffrin and last season's champion Petra Vlhova. American Shiffrin and Slovakia's Vlhova struggled on the tough upper half of the course and Hector took advantage to jump into pole position as she raced down in 1:07.23 minutes, with second-placed Tessa Worley of France 0.08 seconds off the pace.

Swede Sara Hector emerged as the leader of the women's giant slalom after the event's first run in Slovenia's Kranjska Gora on Saturday following poor runs by overall World Cup leader Mikaela Shiffrin and last season's champion Petra Vlhova.

American Shiffrin and Slovakia's Vlhova struggled on the tough upper half of the course and Hector took advantage to jump into pole position as she raced down in 1:07.23 minutes, with second-placed Tessa Worley of France 0.08 seconds off the pace. Italy's Marta Bassino in third was a further 0.15 seconds behind, with 14th-placed Shiffrin 1.48 seconds behind and Vlhova 1.51 seconds adrift of the leader in 15th.

The race was interrupted for 20 minutes after German Paulina Schlosser, who came out of the block 55th from 60 racers, suffered a heavy crash and was lifted off the course on a stretcher with a suspected knee injury. Shiffrin will head into Sunday's slalom at the same venue aiming to set a record for most wins in a single discipline, as she is tied with former Swedish men's great Ingemar Stenmark who won 46 giant slaloms during his 1974-1989 career.

Shiffrin returned to action with a runners-up slalom finish behind Vlhova in Croatia's capital Zagreb on Tuesday after missing two races having contracted COVID-19. (Writing by Zoran Milosavljevic; Additional reporting by Boris Zivulovc; Editing by Toby Chopra and Ken Ferris)