Laure Pequegnot of France picked up her second World Cup slalom victory of the season Sunday when fist-run leader Tanja Poutiainen of Finland fell on her second run. Kristina Koznick (Burnsville, MN) was 4th, .01 off the podium, while Sarah Schleper (Vail, CO) had the second-fastest final run and moved up to 5th-- her fifth top-10 in a row. Caroline Lalive (Steamboat Springs, CO) took 6th in the combined.

Poutiainen, leading the first run for the first time, had a hold as she came into the start for her second run as course workers repaired a gate. She got several gates into the run, on a solid shot for her first World Cup win, when she went down, giving the win to Pequegnot, whose first triumph came at Copper Mountain on Thanksgiving Day in another slalom, in 1:27.22. Sonja Nef of Switzerland was 2nd in 1:27.80 with Ylva Nowen of Sweden 3rd at 1:27.89.

Koznick narrowly missed the podium with a two-run time of 1:27.90 and Schleper, 12th in the first run, ate up the second run to move into 5th place at 1:27.98. No other American was in the top-30.

However, in the combined calculation, adding totals of today's slalom with a downhill Saturday, Austrian Renate Goetschl won while Lalive was 6th and Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley, CA) was 11th for her first World Cup points of the season. Lindsey C. Kildow (Vail, CO), who was 24th in the downhill, fell at the bottom of her final run in a bid for combined points.

"That's what? Five straight top-10's for Sarah. She's just skiing awesome, so full of confidence," Head Coach Marjan Cernigoj said. "She's really knocking on the door of those top skiers and, obviously, we hope she continues with this."

Lalive, who had four top-10's in Saalbach alone a year ago, including 2nd in the combined, was 16th Saturday in downhill but failed to qualify in slalom. "This was disappointing for 'Liner', no question. We, and she, expected more but so it goes.

"She's definitely struggling on the technical [SL/GS] side. We're trying to get her to 400 points [in the World Cup start list, which covers 12 months of racing] so at the Olympics she'll be able to pick [her start number instead of a random draw] in downhill and super G; being sixth gave her 40 points, so she's just five points away."

The women move on to Berchtesgaden, Germany, for a giant slalom and slalom Jan. 19-20 and then on to Cortina, Italy, for a downhill, a Super g and a giant slalom Jan. 25-27, which will be the final pre-Olympic selection events. The alpine Olympic Team is expected to be named Jan. 28.

— Courtesy, US Ski Team