Sweden's new slalom star Ylva Nowen raced superbly to clinch her second win of the season.

Nowen, whose best result before this season was fifth, clocked a combined time over the two legs of 1min 35.42 secs to beat world champion Deborah Compagnoni by 28/100ths of a second.

Second slalom win of the season for Nowen

The Swede now has two wins and a second in this year's three World Cup slalom events. She repeated her victory over Compagnoni at Val D'Isere in France last week.

Nowen, fastest in the opening run at Lienz Austria, had to contend with the worst of the ruts on the piste on the second run.

But she kept fighting despite several minor errors and recovered superbly.

Nowen said: "I just hoped that I'd done enough over the first run. The second run was extremely difficult. The course was very wet, but I kept struggling."

Compagnoni: A close second

Several days of rain and mild temperatures had softened the man-made snow on the course, making it difficult for late starters to record fast times.

The organisers delayed the start of the second run by an hour to harden the course with chemicals.

Ylva Nowen, who nearly quit her unspectacular career in frustration, puts her change in fortunes down to mental training and talks with a psychologist.

She said: "I am now concentrated on myself, I am not looking so much at the others. But I am a bit surprised that I won again,"

The third slalom, women's World Cup, Lienz Hochstein course (individual run times in parentheses):

• 1. Ylva Nowen (Swe) 1 minute, 35.42 seconds (46.12-49.30)
• 2. D Compagnoni (Ita) 1:35.70 (46.59-49.11)
• 3. U Hrovat (Slo) 1:36.19 (47.11-49.08)
• 4. K Koznick (USA)1:36.60 (47.86-48.74)
• 5. P Wiberg (Swe) 1:36.80 (47.86-48.94)
• 6. Z Steggall (Aus) 1:36.95 (47.54-49.41)
• 7. K Seizinger (Ger) 1:37.01 (47.93-49.08)
• 8. S Egger (Aut) 1:37.05 (48.34-48.71)
• 9. L Pequegnot (Fra) 1:37.25 (48.67-48.58)
• 10= A Wachter (Aut) 1:37.28 (48.74-48.54)
• 10= A Dovzan (Slo) 1:37.28 (48.66-48.62)

Back to top | BBC News Home | BBC Homepage	©