Alpine skiing: Slalom success again for Schild

Winner Marlies Schild of Austria (C) celebrates with second placed Tina Maze of Slovenia (L) and third placed Mikaela Shiffrin (R) of US at the women's slalom in Alpine skiing FIS World cup, yesterday

Austria's world champion Marlies Schild maintained her perfect start to the women's slalom World Cup season with her fourth win out of four yesterday.
Slovenia's Tina Maze took second with American teenager Mikaela Shiffrin in third.
With her 31st World Cup win Schild is now only three wins away from equalling Swiss star Vreni Schneider's record haul of 34.
Schild dominated the action with a lead of more than half a second on her closest pursuer Maze after the first leg to go on and prevail by 79 hundredths of a second after the second run.
Maze was going one better after her third place at Flachau last week but the exploit of the day belonged to Shiffrin who at 16 was climbing the World Cup podium for the first time at only her eighth attempt.
Her US compatriot Lindsey Vonn came in 18th to retain her position at the top of the overall standings.
Another American, Sarah Schleper, used the occasion to announce her retirement at the age of 32 and after four World Cup wins in 16 seasons and four Olympic Games appearances.

Defago wins in Bormio

In Italy, Switzerland's Olympic champion Didier Defago won men's World Cup downhill in Bormio yesterday ahead of teammate Patrick Kueng and Austrian Klaus Kroell.
The victory was Defago's fourth on the World Cup circuit and marks his return to thetop of the podium after a knee injury last year.
The 34-year-old, second in Bormio in 2009, is the first Swiss skier to win a World Cup event on the Stelvio slope.
Defago timed 2min 01.81sec to beat his fellow countryman Kueng by 29 hundredths of a second with Kroell, at 0.42sec, climbing the podium in the downhill for the second time this season.
American Bode Miller took fifth to take charge of the World Cup downhill standings with Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal the new overall leader after finishing sixth.