He wanted it with all his strength, and he arrived. Third podium of the season, the twentieth of his career. In Sweden, on the Are track, the army burgarina Marta Bassino gets rid of the difficulties of this season and conquers a superb second place in the eighth seasonal giant of the World Cup, the last one before the Courchevel and Meribel finals of the next week. For the borgarina it is the best result of the season, which she arrives to chase away the disappointments after an unsuccessful Olympics and the premature exit from the test in Lenzerheide, just a week ago. On difficult snow, with a track that already from the first heat has made famous victims like the blue Federica Brignone, the Cuneo woman is simply herself, safe and light. The best way to respond to the difficulties of the period and confirm how effective her skiing remained.
«A very tough race, given my previous season – said Marta -. In the first heat I had respect for the track and I knew that Vhlova had an edge over the others despite the mistake made. In the second I knew the track was ruined, it was just a matter of holding on rather than thinking about skiing well to do the precise things, so I attacked to get the grit out. Congratulations to the winner who was very good. I’m very happy, it’s a great boost for next week’s finals in France ».
The twenty-six year old from the Army had already finished second in the first heat accusing only three hundredths of a disadvantage from Petra Vlhova, who seemed destined to dominate the race from the start and so was leading an amazing second heat going to win by 1 ″ 24. Third instead the American Mikaela Shiffrin, always leader of the general classification, while Sara Hector, third in the middle of the race, came out after a few doors of the second heat, and now sees Tessa Worley approaching in the specialty ranking, fourth at the finish line and just 5 points away. .
For Bassino, third this year in the Courchevel and Kranjska Gora appointments, the best seasoning result arrived, giving herself the podium number 20 of her career. A fundamental result, capable of giving, above all, great confidence.
Today the Swedish snow will host a slalom (10.30 and 13.45, live RaiSport and Eurosport) in which the borgarina will also take part. This will be the last race before kicking off the grand finale of the season scheduled in Courchevel and Meribel where the two downhill runs, male and female (Wednesday), the two super giants (Thursday 17 March), the team event (Friday 18 March), men’s giant and women’s slalom (Saturday 19 March) and women’s giant and men’s slalom (Sunday 20 March). The best 25 of each specialty, athletes with more than 500 points in the general classification and the winners of the Juniores world titles in Panorama, in Canada, take part in the competitions.