
Federica Brignone is in the lead in the World Cup giant slalom at Kronplatz after 30 racers. Lara Gut-Behrami is 19 hundredths behind the Italian in 2nd place.
Brignone showed a flawless run on the challenging slope in South Tyrol and responded impressively to her failure in Kranjska Gora. The fact that the local is in the lead at the halfway point is also down to Julia Scheib. The Austrian, who was able to start in the top group for the first time, was eliminated shortly before the finish with the best intermediate time.
Brignone came closest to Gut-Behrami. The skier from Ticino, who won the giant slalom at the same venue last year but has yet to finish on the podium in the basic discipline this season, lost the half-time lead in the bottom section of the course, where she lost more than half a second to the leader.
Sweden's Sara Hector follows in third place. The leader in the discipline ranking is 27 hundredths behind Brignone and eight behind Gut-Behrami. The second-best Swiss skier, Camille Rast (7th), is three tenths off the podium. Wendy Holdener is in 15th place after 30 racers, 1.48 seconds behind.
Simone Wild and Michelle Gisin did not get up to speed at all. The skier from Zurich and the skier from Obwalden are likely to miss the second run starting at 1.30 pm, 3.29 and 3.65 seconds behind respectively.