Astner triumphs

ÖSV talent rides into the yellow jersey thanks to a race to catch up

Victoria Olivier took the lead in the European Cup giant slalom rankings.

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Two ÖSV ladies, Nina Astner from Tyrol and Victoria Olivier from Vorarlberg, had plenty of reason to celebrate on Friday. The 24-year-old Astner celebrated her second European Cup victory in the giant slalom in Puy St. Vincent, France, while the 20-year-old Olivier took the lead in the overall giant slalom rankings after finishing fourth.

"I want to finally show a good first run so that I don't have to make up so much ground in the second run," said Victoria Olivier after finishing fourth in the European Cup giant slalom in Puy St. Vincent, France, up from 23rd place. "Unfortunately, I completely overslept the first run and didn't attack enough. And then you lose a lot of time very quickly."

Victoria Olivier is currently smiling! After scoring her first World Cup points in Kranjska Gora, she is now also at the top of the European Cup.

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Fulminant final run
In the case of the 20-year-old from Au, she was exactly 2.46 seconds down on her ÖSV colleague Nina Astner at the break. However, with the second-best time in the final, the Rauch Young racer made up 1.99 seconds on Astner, who celebrated her second European Cup victory and snatched a whopping fifty EC points in fourth place behind Britt Richardson (Kan/+0.23) and Erika Pykalainen (Fin/+0.35).

Nina Astner celebrated her second victory in the European Cup.

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Attack on the overall leader 
As a result, the head rider also took the lead in the "Giant" classification from Delphine Darbellay (Sz), who did not make it past eleventh place yesterday, and goes into today's second race in Puy St. Vicent with the yellow jersey of the leader in the discipline classification for the first time. "This is very cool and something special for me," said a delighted Vici, who could also replace Janine Schmitt (Sz) - who is competing in the World Cup in St. Anton this week - at the top of the overall EC rankings.

Zegg in "giant" form
Another Ländle girl was also in top form: downhill specialist Leonie Zegg confirmed her current upward trend in giant slalom form by finishing ninth - 3.03 seconds behind Italy's Francesca Fanti - at the Haitian championships. "I can finally show my training performance in the race," said the 20-year-old, who has improved her FIS points to under 40 in the last few days. There was less reason to celebrate for Marie Therese Haller and Angelina Salzgeber: both were eliminated from run two.