Skiing: Vonn vents her 'anger' in slalom to clinch super-combined crown

(AP)

Lindsey Vonn won the super-combined World Cup title when she finished second in the season's final race in the discipline in Tarvisio, Italy, yesterday.

The race was won by Slovenia's Tina Maze, who kept up the momentum after her giant slalom world title in Garmisch-Partenkirchen two weeks ago to clinch her first World Cup victory of the winter. Maze won in a combined time of two minutes 13.54 seconds, beating Vonn by 0.18sec.

The American jumped for joy in the finish area after collecting the 10th crystal globe of her career and her second in succession in super-combined. Vonn moved 20 points closer to friend and rival Maria Riesch in the overall cup standings. Germany's Riesch, who was third in yesterday's race, leads Vonn by 176 points with eight races remaining.

"I'm very proud of myself. It was not very nice skiing but it was efficient," said Vonn, who led after the morning's downhill leg and skied a good slalom leg for the first time this season. "I have had a frustrating time in slaloms and I tackled this with determination and anger. This is a very significant success. Maria looks set to win the overall title but I'm satisfied with a speciality title."

Riesch struggled in the slalom leg and said she had had too much on her mind. "There was so much pressure on me what with trying to win the race, going for the super-combined title and trying to score points for the overall that I was not able to find my momentum," she said. "The snow was so rough I skied on the tail of my skis and nearly went out. It was again crucial to be on the podium today because it's so easy to lose points."

Maze has now won in three different disciplines – eight giant slaloms, one downhill and one super-combined – and said she was happy with her increasing versatility. "I'm very proud of this for I had never made it on to the podium of a super-combined before this season. Today I knew I had a chance and I tried very hard because I had a lot of fans from Slovenia, which is just across the mountain," she said.