Austria's Fenninger wins World Cup giant slalom, Maze finishes second

Anna Fenninger pumps her fist after finishing her run on the Ofterschwang Horn.

Christophe Pallot/Getty Images

OFTERSCHWANG, Germany (AP) Anna Fenninger of Austria won a World Cup giant slalom on Saturday, while overall champion Tina Maze became the first woman to make eight GS podiums in one season.

Fenninger protected her lead from the first run to complete the Ofterschwanger Horn course in 2 minutes, 29.39 seconds and finish 0.44 ahead of Maze, who had already clinched the overall and giant slalom titles.

Maze earned her 21st World Cup podium of the season, putting her just one behind Austrian great Hermann Maier's record from 1999-2000. She has already broken Maier's record for points in a season, and extended her total to 2,154.

"I'm very happy with the day and the course. The atmosphere was great," Maze said.

Julia Mancuso of the United States was eighth after finishing 2.85 off the pace on her 29th birthday. American teenager Mikaela Shiffrin, the slalom world champion, skied out on her first run.

It was the second straight World Cup victory for the 23-year-old Fenninger, who won the super-G at Garmisch-Partenkirchen last week.

Viktoria Rebensburg was 0.96 back in third place. The German was going for her third win in a row at Ofterschwang. Eva-Maria Brem of Austria was fourth for her best World Cup finish, followed by France's Anemone Marmottan, who was fastest in the second run.

Organizers had cancelled a training run to protect the snow due to the springtime conditions.

With her unprecedented dominance this season, Maze has nearly twice as many points as her closest challenger, Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany, who is second on 1,065. The German could only manage 16th on Saturday despite support from the flag-waving crowd.

Maze went straight into training for Sunday's slalom race. She is 33 points behind Shiffrin for the slalom title and hopes to prolong the title race until the World Cup finals next week in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. The 29-year-old Slovenian is trying to become the first woman to win five crystal globes in a season.

"It's unbelievable," Fenninger said. "For me it's incredible how often she's in front in all disciplines. It's the result of extremely hard work for many years. She's been fighting for this her whole life. It's simply unbelievable."