Music: {allcanada} WORLEY WINS THIRD STRAIGHT WORLD CUP GIANT SLALOM EVENT

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

{allcanada} WORLEY WINS THIRD STRAIGHT WORLD CUP GIANT SLALOM EVENT

SEMMERING, Austria -- Tessa Worley of France has won a third straight women's World Cup giant slalom, while second-place Maria Riesch overtook Lindsey Vonn at the top of the overall standings.

Worley finished her two runs on the Panorama course in a time of two minute, 9.66 seconds to beat Riesch by 0.62 seconds Tuesday. World champion Kathrin Hoelzl took third.

Three-time overall champion Vonn finished seventh. The American trails Riesch by 41 points going into the final race of the year -- a slalom Wednesday.

Marie-Michele Gagnon of Lac-Etchemin, Que., was the top Canadian, finishing third in 23rd spot with a time of 2:12.36. Gagnon was 19th after the first run.

"I'm a little bit disappointed. I didn't have a good second run," she said. "Obviously I have to be realistic, if it had been last year I would have been happy with a 23rd place.

"But I've been skiing really well in giant slalom this season so I had better expectations. I need to stay positive, I know exactly what happened wrong. I made two huge mistakes in the second run and I know it will be easy to correct. I just had a bad day today, it happens,."

Marie-Pierre Prefontaine of Saint-Sauveur, Que., didn't qualify for the second run.

Worley also won this season in Aspen, Colo., and St. Moritz, Switzerland.