St-Germain shocks Shiffrin for world slalom gold

Méribel (Agencies): Canada’s Laurence St-Germain caused a massive upset by winning world slalom gold in Meribel on Saturday, outgunning favourite Mikaela Shiffrin who took silver.

It meant the end of Shiffrin’s bid for a fifth world slalom title after she dominated the first of two runs in the French resort, but floundered on the second to allow the Canadian in for a stunning victory. The result still saw the 27-year-old American leave the champs with giant slalom gold and a second silver from the super-G. St-Germain had been third fastest after the first leg down the Roc de Fer slope in sunny, warm conditions and held her nerve on the second run for a winning aggregate time of 1min 43.15sec.

It was a remarkable victory for the 28-year-old Quebec native who has never made a World Cup podium. The best result of her 13 top 10 finishes from her eight seasons on the circuit is a fifth place in a parallel slalom in St Moritz in December 2019.

“That is weird!” St-Germain said when asked how it felt to be the newly-crowned world champion. “I was really not expecting this obviously. I was really stressed, I was kind of nauseous.

“I had bit of a mistake but I was thinking ‘go down, go down, go down’, and it worked out,” said St-Germain, who becomes the first Canadian woman to win a world gold since Melanie Turgeon claimed victory in the downhill in St Moritz in 2003. – ‘Energy gone’ – Shiffrin, whose attention will immediately turn to her bid to equal and then surpass Ingemar Stenmark’s overall record of 86 World Cup victories, suffered a terrible second run to finish 0.57sec off the Canadian’s pace, with Germany’s Lena Duerr taking bronze (+0.69).