Bassino leads: Swiss women on the prowl before second heat

Italian Marta Bassino leads the standings after the first giant slalom race ahead of Federica Brignone at the opening of the Alpine season in Sölden. Swiss women are on the prowl.

As the best in Swiss skiing, Michelle Gisin is ex-aequo with New Zealand winner Alice Robinson in fourth place. The Engelberger woman is 1.18 seconds behind the leader Bassino, 26 hundredths of a second off the podium. Immediately behind Gisin is Lara Gut-Behrami. Ticino, which is 1.39 seconds behind the leaders, won the race at Sölden in 2013 and 2016.

Wendy Holdener, who started the race with the No. 1 start, also showed a good performance. The Schwyzerin is in seventh place at halftime. Holdener had only made a short-term decision to start after sustaining an undisplaced fracture of the head of the right fibula during a training fall in Saas-Fee in early September. Only on Monday did he receive the green light from the doctors so that he could put on his skis again.

The two Italians Bassino and Brignone, the overall winner of the World Cup last season, were in a class of their own. Bassino makes the decision with a 0.58 second lead; celebrated its only World Cup victory to date at the Killington Giant Slalom a year ago. The American Mikaela Shiffrin decided not to go on the Rettenbach Glacier due to back problems.

The second race will start at 1 pm Like Sunday’s men’s giant slalom, the race will take place without a spectator.