Alpine skiing: Swiss Holdener leading women's slalom

[February 16, 2019]  ARE, Sweden (Reuters) - Swiss Wendy Holdener was the halfway leader in the women's slalom at the Alpine skiing world championships on Saturday with favorite Mikaela Shiffrin in third spot.

Holdener, enjoying a superb championships with golds in the combined and team events, negotiated the 70 gates in 57.08 seconds, 0.11 quicker than home favorite Anna Swenn Larsson.

Olympic champion Shiffrin was 0.15 down as the American targets a fourth consecutive world gold in the slalom.

Once again the mild weather conditions caused problems with rain restricting visibility and making the piste slushy.

It meant that few of the later starters were able to make much impression on the leaderboard.

Austria's Katharina Liensberger was fourth quickest as the powerhouse Alpine nation still awaits a first gold at the championships in the Swedish resort.

Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener in action. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

The top six, which also included giant slalom winner Petra Vlhova of Slovakia, were separated by 0.56 seconds.

The medals will be decided in the second run at 1430GMT.

(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Ken Ferris)

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