Robinson back on podium

Alice Robinson’s run of wonderful form has continued in Andorra.

The Queenstown skier won silver in the latest round of the FIS giant slalom world cup yesterday.

Robinson, 22, put down two blistering runs at the Soldeu resort to finish on the podium for the third consecutive world cup race, finishing just 0.01sec behind the winner, Swiss skier Lara Gut-Behrami.

"I am really happy — another podium is amazing", she said.

"It’s always a bit bittersweet to be one-hundredth on the wrong side, but that’s how it goes, and maybe by the end of the season it will be the other way around and I will win by one-hundredth of a second."

Robinson was the sixth athlete on course, and as always pushed out of the start gate with a huge amount of energy.

A very fast second split combined with three other solid splits had Robinson sitting in third position after run one, just 0.11sec behind leader Marta Bassino, of Italy.

"The snow was interesting", Robinson said.

"It felt like some turns it was really grippy, some of it was quite slick and some of it the snow was a bit softer, so I had to adapt the whole way down."

With the top 30 racers reversed for the second run, Robinson was the third-last racer back on course.

She put down a strong run, attacking the course with her trademark dynamic skiing to finish a whisker out of the gold medal spot.

American skier AJ Hurt claimed the first world cup podium of her career, rounding out the podium in third.

"I am really happy with how I am skiing and really happy with another podium", Robinson said.

"I think I have made a big step with my consistency and I am doing really well on different snow conditions. I am really happy with how it’s heading and maybe I can get a win before the end of the season."

It was Robinson’s fourth world cup podium result this season, and the ninth of her career.

Soldeu is where she burst on to the global alpine ski racing scene when, at just 17, she claimed her first world cup medal in March 2019.

The women’s world cup season continues with a change of pace to speed events for the next three weekends, before rounding out the giant slalom season with the final two races in March.

— Staff reporter