Riesch finally comes good at worlds

IT has been a long time coming for Maria Riesch, but Germany's No.1 has finally claimed World Championship gold in Val d'Isere.

MAGIC MARIA: Maria Riesch captures Germany's second gold of the World Championships (Getty Images) 

Riesch is currently second in the overall rankings behind Lindsey Vonn, but it is the American that has dominated proceedings in the French Alps, claiming two medals.  

Vonn's participation in today's slalom race was in doubt, having been ruled out of the giant slalom race, but she stormed through the first run to lie second at the half-way stage.

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Riesch was sixth after her first run, with Italy's Manuela Moelgg in first, but both she and Vonn skied out on the second run, handing Germany their second gold medal of the tournament.

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Moelgg had produced a scintillating first run to put her in poll position, clocking a time of 55 seconds exactly.

Vonn, despite the injury to her thumb she picked up in a champagne bottle incident, blitzed her way into second in a time of 55.24 secs, and a third world title, to add to her downhill and Super-G gold, was on the cards.

Riesch, who has four slalom World Cup victories to her name already this season, was 0.63 secs off the pace after her first outing but roared back in 56.17 - the fastest time of the second run - to take the lead.

And once both Vonn and Moelgg had fallen, Riesch could celebrate her first ever World Championship gold medal, as defending champion Sarka Zahrobska of the Czech Republic took silver.

"It was such a scary race out there with so many people falling," said Zahrobska. "I knew that I had a pretty good time but there were a lot of good skiers to come - I guess luck was on my side today."

While bronze went to Finland's Tanja Poutiainen, who claimed her second medal of the tournament, having taken bronze in the giant slalom.

"It was an amazing race," she said. "I'm so happy for Maria because she has been so unlucky so far here but she has had such a good season."