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Goggia wins super-G for Lake Louise World Cup sweep

By AFP

Italy's Sofia Goggia snatched a World Cup super-G victory from Lara Gut-Behrami on Sunday to become the first skier to sweep all three Lake Louise races since US speed great Lindsey Vonn.

Goggia trailed Gut-Behrami's leading time at every interval until she flashed across the finish line in 1min 18.28sec -- 11-hundredths of a second ahead of the Swiss.

Austrian Mirjam Puchner was third, 44-hundredths behind the winner.

The victory capped a dominant week in the Canadian Rockies for Goggia, who won the first downhill of the season on Friday by a staggering 1.47sec and cruised to victory in the second downhill on Saturday with a more conservative display in cloudy, snowy conditions.

Her two downhill victories gave her a streak of six wins in six downhill starts, the longest since Vonn won six in a row leading up to the 2010 Olympics.

She matched Vonn's feat of a Lake Louise sweep, which the American achieved in 2011, 2012 and 2015.

"I think of these three days, today is the best victory," Goggia said. "Because last season when I won in downhill then I couldn't win in super-G. I couldn't find a way to switch my modality from downhill to super-G.

"Today confirmed that I could find a way and I'm super-happy and super-glad. Today is the best victory."

Goggia, who missed the World Championships last February with a knee injury, emphatically stamped herself a favorite to defend the Olympic downhill gold she won four years ago in Pyeongchang at the Beijing Winter Games in February.

Goggia claimed the fourth World Cup super-G win of her career as she denied Gut-Behrami.

The Swiss won her third World Cup super-G title last year in dominant style with four wins and another podium finish in six races. Her final tally of 525 points was 202 ahead of her closest rival, Federica Brignone of Italy.

Gut-Behrami was chasing slalom specialist Petra Vlhova for the overall title last season when weather cancellations hit the final speed races and she was unable to gain ground on the Slovakian.

This season's overall leader, Mikaela Shiffrin, gained some valuable points with a sixth-place finish, 58-hundredths behind Goggia.

It was an encouraging showing after the American failed to crack the top 25 in either downhill.

Shiffrin tops the overall standings with 405 points, with slalom rival Vlhova second on 340 and Goggia jumped into third on 315 thanks to her maximum haul of 300 points from three races.

"I couldn't have done more," the delighted Italian said.

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