Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
LIENZ, Austria (AP) — Swiss skier Lara Gut won a women's World Cup giant slalom on Monday, extending her overall lead as Lindsey Vonn failed to finish the opening run.
Gut has won three of the last four races, giving her a 158-point lead over the American four-time overall champion going into 2016.
"I hope there will be no snow anymore and they have to cancel all remaining races," Gut said jokingly after her 16th career win and fourth of the season.
The Olympic downhill bronze medalist has 658 points followed by Vonn with 500. Frida Hansdotter of Sweden is third with 376.
"It's cool but I have to keep going instead of starting to calculate," said Gut, who hadn't scored World Cup points in four previous starts here since 2007. "A few starts and no points, that can happen. It's all running smoothly now."
Trailing first-run leader Ana Drev of Slovenia by just 0.02, Gut put in an attacking yet near-flawless second run to finish in an aggregate time of 2 minutes, 6.00 seconds.
Drev, who has three top-10 finishes in 122 World Cup starts and placed a career-best seventh in Courchevel last week, fell and slid off the course even before the first split time of her final run.
Liechtenstein's Tina Weirather came 0.12 back in second and Germany's Viktoria Rebensburg was third, 0.30 behind Gut.
"It was pretty good even if it didn't feel that way," Weirather said. "It was quite dark so it became a pretty wild run."
Gut also went top of the GS standings, overtaking Eva-Maria Brem by eight points, 350-342. The Austrian, who made her World Cup debut here 10 years ago, was 0.06 back in third after the opening run but dropped to fourth, 0.36 off Gut's winning time.
Trailing then leader Gut by 0.12 in the first run, Vonn went too wide on a left turn about 45 seconds into her run and failed to make the next gate.
"I gave my best and was skiing well. I was fast," said the American, adding she was hampered by a cold. "I approached that gate too straight and didn't have the energy anymore to correct it."
Skipping Tuesday's slalom here, Vonn said she will fly home to the United States and return to Austria for Jan. 9-10 speed races in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee.
These events were initially planned for St. Anton but had to be moved because of a lack of snow and mild temperatures.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
