Maria Riesch wins opening women's World Cup slalom

LEVI, Finland (AP)

Riesch, the defending world slalom champion, finished with a two-run time of 1 minute, 48.71 seconds on the Black Course at the World Cup circuit's northernmost venue above the Arctic Circle.

It was Riesch's 12th career World Cup victory, the sixth in slalom and the second at Levi.

Coming into the race, the 24-year-old German was uncertain about her slalom form.

"This past week I had some problems finding my setup and a really good feeling and a good position on my skis," Riesch said. "I was not totally self confident when I came here.

"But the last two days in training here I realized that I liked the Finnish snow a lot. I got the necessary confidence in the last two days to ski fast today. I'm so happy that I won the first slalom of the season."

Vonn, who won her second consecutive overall title last season by a large margin over her good friend Riesch, loves skiing at Levi.

"This hill reminds me so much of racing back home in Buck Hill (Minnesota)," Vonn said. It would have been nice to get the win again, but I had a big mistake at the bottom.

"The snow was perfect and the course setting was perfect. The lights were on. It was fun. I was excited to race. Coming here to Levi I was really excited about it, just being out there with so many people and having such a great atmosphere really made me happy and excited to racing slalom again."

Vonn said her goal was to try to get into the top five.

"I think I had a pretty solid first run, but in the second run I had some small mistakes," she said. "Maria definitely had a great run today and I'm happy that she won. I'm happy with my second place. It was a solid result for me."

Vonn was flying back to the United States later Saturday for training in Vail ahead of the World Cup meet in Aspen in two weeks.

"This gives me awesome confidence going into the Aspen Winternational in a few weeks," she said. "My skis are feeling really good and until you race you don't really have a measure for how you're doing against the other girls, so I'm pretty thankful to be on the podium."

Tanja Poutiainen of Finland was 1.16 behind in third place and kept the overall World Cup lead. Poutiainen won the opening giant slalom race of the season last month in Austria.

"When I finished my second run I knew it would be my second podium in Levi in front of my home people," Poutiainen said. "This was something special. I'm really happy about it."

A veteran now entering her 12th World Cup season, Poutiainen won the World Cup giant slalom title at Are, Sweden, last season.

"In the last few years I've been a little bit stronger in the GS and kind of struggled with my slalom," she said. "Now I started my season with a podium. I know everything is under control. Everything is fine. I can go forward."

After two races, Poutiainen tops the overall standings with 160 points. Riesch is second with 113 and Vonn third with 109.

Vonn, who was ninth in Austria, earned her first career slalom win in Levi last year and went on to win the overall title, as well as the downhill and super-G trophies.

Former overall champion Anja Paerson, who had the fourth fastest time in the opening run, nearly straddled a gate late in the second run. The Swede regained her rhythm, but the mishap cost her several seconds. She wound up 24th among the 29 finishers, 3.70 seconds behind Riesch.

Paerson, who was third overall last year, is eighth in the overall standings with 47 points.