Weirather wins crown as Shiffrin kept waiting

US star Mikaela Shiffrin was kept waiting for the overall womens World Cup crown by the slimmest of margins Thursday after Liechtensteins Tina Weirather captured the World Cup womens Super-G crown.

Weirather overtook Super-G points leader Ilka Stuhec of Slovenia for the discipline season title by winning the campaign's final race in 1:11.66 with Stuhec second, .35 of a second behind but edging Italy's Federica Brignone by .01 to barely sustain her overall title chances.

"I didn't lose the globe today. It was a long season," Stuhec said. "It has been challenging all the way. Second place is still amazing."

Shiffrin, with 11 World Cup victories this season, now leads Stuhec 1,523-1,325 with two races and 200 possible points remaining from the World Cup Final at Aspen.

Even though she failed to clinch the crown, a coronation is all but certain at the weekend with Shiffrin's specialties, the slalom and giant slalom, to be raced.

Stuhec would need to win both and have Shiffrin falter to overtake her for the overall title. Stuhec will race in Sunday's giant slalom but was uncertain about Saturday's slalom, where Shiffrin is heavily favored.

Since her 2013 World Cup debut, Shiffrin has ruled slalom with world titles in 2013, 2015 and 2017, 2014 Winter Olympic gold at Sochi and four of the past five World Cup titles.

On the men's side, Austria's Hannes Reichelt won the last Super-G race of the campaign in 1:08.22, defeating Italy's Dominik Paris by .11 of a second with Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and Swiss Muro Caviezel sharing third on 1:08.55.

Norway's Kjetil Jansrud, who had already clinched the season Super-G crown, finished ninth in 1:09.02 while Austria's Marcel Hirscher, assured the men's overall World Cup title, was 11th in 1:09.30.

"I was happy with race. I'm statisfied with my season," Jansrud said. "I'm in the fight for globes, for victories. I'm competing at the highest level."

Reichelt passed Kilde to finish second in the men's Super-G standings, trailing Jansrud for the season 394-303.

'It's my biggest achievement'

Stuhec, who clinched the season downhill title with a victory Wednesday in that discipline, entered the season's last Super-G race leading Weirather by 15 points.

Weirather started fifth but took the lead with a run of 1:11.66. Stuhec started seventh, three of the six prior races having failed to finish the course, and was within .09 of Weirather on the last two intervals before fading at the finish to close on 1:12.01.

"Nothing to be sad about the second place," Stuhec said. "Second place and podium is always great."

The times stood to top the podium, giving Weirather a 435-430 edge in the final Super-G standings. Her first World Cup crown follows a family tradition with mother Hanni a former overall World Cup and Olympic champion and father Harti the 1981 downhill and 1982 world champion.

"It's my biggest achievement," Weirather said. "It's more important to win a globe than a (world title). You have to perform through the whole season."

Drama build for the final 14 racers, any one of whom could have beaten Stuhec's time to hand Shiffrin the overall title.

Three rivals had serious chances. Italy's Sofia Goggia and American Lindsey Vonn were on pace for second place but failed to finish while Brignone was ahead on time after the last interval but faded to just miss out.

Shiffrin, who turned 22 on Monday and lives in nearby Vail, would be the youngest World Cup overall champion since Croatia's Janica Kostelic in 2003.