- Defending champion Tina Maze was upstaged as Tessa Worley stormed to the gold in the women's giant slalom event at the Alpine Skiing World Championships in Schladming, Austria on Thursday.
Worley edged out the
favored Slovenian by 1.12 seconds, clocking a combined time of two
minutes and 8.6 seconds for her two runs to improve on her third-place
finish at the 2011 event in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
"How do I feel? Just amazing, it's incredible," the 23-year-old Frenchwoman told the event's official website.
"It's been hard today. It
was a very tough course and I had to concentrate on myself only,
letting my skis go and not do too many mistakes. My dream has just
become true. It feels great!"
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It was France's fourth medal of the two-week championships, and second gold by a woman after Marion Rolland's shock downhill victory, leaving the European nation top of the leaderboard.
"We are having a very
strong team and a great atmosphere here in Schladming," said Worley, who
has an Australian father and French mother. "I am now part of the
medalists."
Worley is 13th in the World Cup standings and fifth in the giant slalom rankings.
Maze heads both
categories ahead of the resumption of the series in the German town of
Garmisch-Partenkirchen next weekend, and looks destined to capture the
title from U.S. star Lindsey Vonn.
Vonn had surgery on torn
ligaments earlier this week following a crash right at the start of the
world championships and is now battling to be fit for the 2014 Winter
Olympics in Sochi.
Maze admitted it had
been a difficult day, although she did take consolation from her second
run as she added to her gold in the super-G race and silver in the
super-combined.
"Today was really hard
for me," said the 29-year-old. "I didn't race too good in the first run,
my second run was amazing, though. I am really appreciating this silver
medal today."
The bronze medal went to
Austria's Anna Fenninger, who beat off competition from compatriot
Kathrin Zettel -- extending the host nation's wait for a first
individual gold of the competition, having won only Tuesday's mixed
teams event.
Fenninger was relieved to have won her first medal of the championships, having claimed super-combined gold in 2011.
"I went back home to
tank some energy, it was an excellent move," the 23-year-old said. "I
didn't believe in my chances for that race and I was able to forget
about the past races here and start everything from scratch again today.
I'm very satisfied to get that medal now."
The final event in the
women's schedule will be Saturday's slalom, in which American teenager
Mikaela Shiffrin leads the World Cup standings ahead of Maze.
Shiffrin's compatriot
Ted Ligety will be seeking his third gold of the championships as he
bids to defend his giant slalom title on Friday, and the men's program
concludes with Sunday's slalom race.
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