Brignone wins final giant slalom as Worley takes title

MÉRIBEL, France: Federica Brignone won the last race of the women’s World Cup season and Tessa Worley grabbed the giant slalom title as Mikaela Shiffrin blew a big lead on the second leg on Sunday.

Swede Sara Hector entered the race leading the event standings by five pints from French veteran Worley with American Shiffrin in touch in third.

Shiffrin dominated the first run to lead Brignone by a huge 0.82sec. Worley was eighth at 1.60sec and Hector, battling injury, a distant 13th.

Hector again struggled in the second run, but Worley, skiing in front of her home fans in Meribel, delivered what turned out to be the fastest second-run time to briefly grab the lead.

Because she had so much time to make up, Worley’s combined time was quicky overtaken by later skiers.

As Shiffrin leapt out of the starting gate for the final run of the women’s season, Worley was fourth. If the American collected the 100 points for a victory, she would take the title by four points from Worley.

But Shiffrin seemed to opt for a defensive approach and failed to build up speed, losing large chunks of time at each split. She ended up posting the slowest time of any of the 24 skiers to finish the second run.

Brignone won by 0.31sec from compatriot Marta Bassino. Slovak Petra Vlhova was third at 0.37.

The 32-year-old Worley missed the podium as she finished fourth, 0.45sec behind Brignone, but she collected the small globe and red bib as she became giant slalom champion for a second time.

Hector was 14th.

Worley ended the season 27 points ahead of Hector in the giant slalom standings and 60 clear of Shiffrin, who after the race collected the large globe for overall champion she had clinched earlier in the week.