体坛英语新闻：Vlhova completes slalom World Cup hat-trick and overtakes archrival Shiffrin in her absence

BRATISLAVA, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- After finishing second in Saturday's Giant Slalom, Petra Vlhova turned it up a notch in Sunday's Slalom event of the FIS Women's World Cup weekend in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, and triumphed by 0.24s before Wendy Holdener of Switzerland who is still waiting for a win having finished 24 times on a slalom podium.

Austria's Katharina Truppe finished third, trailing by 0.89s. Vlhova's triumph marks her third consecutive slalom victory in the prestigious World Cup competition, having won in Flachau and Zagreb earlier in the season.

Her toughest rival and overall standings leader Mikaela Shiffrin is still out of the season indefinitely following her father's tragic death two weeks ago.

Both Vlhova and her Slovak fans who flooded the venue in Kranjska Gora expressed feelings of missing the American superstar's presence on the World Cup slopes.

Vlhova's triumph puts on her on top of the slalom standings, leading the absent Shiffrin by 20 points now.

She also cut the deficit to Shiffrin in the overall WC standings to 154 points.

Vlhova didn't start her road to her eighth slalom victory well, finishing only fourth after the first run and trailing Anna Swenn-Larson by almost a second.

"I was very angry after the first leg because I wasn't able to repeat my performance from my practice runs but I got lucky in the end," said Vlhova after her victory.

She was trailing Swenn-Larson by a significant margin in the second run but the Swede made a rare mistake and fell down only a couple of gates before the finish, putting Vlhova on the top of the podium after the Slovakian performed a free-flowing run.

The three-year winning streak of Vlhova or Shiffrin in slalom thus continues.

FIS World Cup Women's Slalom in Kranjska Gora results: 1. Petra Vlhova (Slovakia) 1m 47.56min, 2. Wendy Holdener (Switzerland) +0.24s, 3. Katharina Truppe (Austria) +0.89s

FIS World Cup Women's Slalom standings: 1. Petra Vlhova (Slovakia) 460 points, 2. Mikaela Shiffrin (United States) 440 points, 3. Katharina Liensberger (Austria) 276 points

FIS World Cup Women's overall standings: 1. Mikaela Shiffrin (United States) 1,225 points, 2. Federica Brignone (Italy) 1,112 points, 3. Petra Vlhova (Slovakia) 1,071 points