Reto Maechler had won the opening men’s race on Friday.
First out of the women’s gates were the top three placegetters from Friday’s women’s ANC Slalom: New Zealand champion Piera Hudson, Austrian Franziska Gritsch and Reece Bell, of Great Britain.
Bell held the lead after run one, 0.11sec ahead of Janine Maechler. Hudson, wearing the yellow bib after her win on Friday, also had a solid start to her day, sitting in third place, hot on Maechler’s heels and 0.12sec off the lead.
Following a course reset for the second run, the women were back in the gates with the start order flipped and the top seeds last to run.
Frustrated about dropping out of podium contention on Friday after initially holding the lead, Maechler used this as motivation and skied a blinder of a second run to claim the win by 0.36sec.
"I was a little bit angry about yesterday because I skied well in the first run and then the second run was not that good", Maechler said.
"I went a little bit stronger and pushed harder on the second run today."
Maechler said her brother’s success on Friday had also spurred her on.
"We are really close and I was so happy for him and I think it pushed me today."
Italian skier Lucrezia Lorenzi also had an outstanding day, skiing from bib No 21 into fifth place after run one and jumping into second place with her two run times combined.
Amelie Klopfenstein, of Switzerland, rounded out the podium in third place with Bell fourth and Hudson fifth. Hudson and Maechler are now the joint holders of the ANC yellow bib.
In the men’s field, experienced world cup racer Sam Maes, of Belgium, found another gear to step up from bronze on Friday and claim gold in Saturday’s second race.
Friday champion Reto Maechler was second after run one, 0.05sec behind Norway’s Theodor Braekken, but he slipped to fourth after the second run.
Maes, fifth after run one on Saturday, turned his speed up a notch or two for his second run to claim the win.
Simon Maurberger (Italy) finished second, 0.27sec behind Maes, and Braekken was third.
Saturday’s slalom races were the final events on the Winter Games alpine ski programme.
— The FIS snowboard slopestyle world cup finals scheduled for Cardrona yesterday were postponed due to the weather.
The finals were rescheduled for today.
In Saturday’s qualifying, Campbell Melville Ives, Dane Menzies and Rocco Jamieson ensured there would be a strong New Zealand presence in the men’s final, while Olympic champion Zoi Sadowski-Synnott qualified for the women’s final.
