LDN - Sports

Alpine skiing: Siebenhofer leads women's combined, Vonn back in action

[February 08, 2019] ARE, Sweden (Reuters) - Austria's Ramona Siebenhofer was fastest in the downhill leg of the women's combined at the Alpine skiing world championships on Friday, with American Lindsey Vonn back in action after crashing earlier in the week.

Siebenhofer, winner of back-to-back World Cup downhills in Cortina d'Ampezzo last month, was one hundredth of a second quicker than Slovenia's Ilka Stuhec, the 2017 downhill world champion.

Norwegian Ragnhild Mowinckel was lying third, 0.06 behind the leader, with Swiss favorite and reigning world champion Wendy Holdener lurking in fifth place and 0.42 slower than Siebenhofer.

The medals will be decided in the afternoon's single slalom leg in Are, with Siebenhofer to go last.

Vonn, who missed two days of downhill training after falling in the opening super-G, was first out of the hut on a piste shortened due to poor visibility and deteriorating weather.

The winner of 82 World Cup races, who was in joint eighth position but will not be competing in the slalom section, had a clean run and waved and smiled to fans at the finish of what amounted to a training session.

"It was OK. I was definitely really stiff out of the start," Vonn, sporting a black eye from Tuesday's crash, told Eurosport television. "I've been having some rib problems, my rib's out.

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Lindsey Vonn of the U.S. in action. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

"From the first jump down it was pretty decent and it was a good test for me because this is obviously a race for the other girls and it's good to see kind of where I stack up.

"I have another gear left to go and I'm just going to rest tomorrow and be ready for Sunday," said the 34-year-old.

Sunday's downhill will be the final race of the former Olympic champion's career after she announced her retirement last week.

(Writing by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Ed Osmond)

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