January 26, 2021 - Croatian skier Zrinka Ljutić achieved her first victory in European Cup races with a triumph in today's slalom held in Zell am See, Austria. It is also her 17th birthday! 

Gol.hr reports that this is the first ascent to the podium in the European Cup for the 17-year-old from Zagreb, and she immediately reached the highest place on the same track where she was eighth the day before.

On Tuesday, with the starting number 9, she had the fourth time of the first run, and she was half a second behind the leading Italian skier Lara Della Meo.

In the second run, the Croatian skier achieved the second-best time, which was ultimately enough for a convincing victory over German Lena Duerr, the winner of the slalom held on Monday.

The first and second from the first run, Italian Della Mea and Swede Wikstroem, failed to finish the second run.

Duerr is also the only skier who managed to fall behind Ljutić by less than one second, while the third-placed Swede Liv Ceder was 1.08 seconds behind.

Zrinka Ljutić is now fifth in the ranking of slalom skiers in the European Cup with 233 points, and she is 232 points behind the leading Slovenian Andreja Slokar. Ljutić is also fifth in the overall standings with 270 points, where Slokar is also leading with 465 points, which she won in the slalom.

"Zrinka Ljutić celebrated her 17th birthday with her first victory in the Europa Cup. With a fantastic second run, Zrinka climbed from 4th place to the highest slalom spot in Zell am See (AUT)!
It's time to celebrate!" CroSki wrote on its Facebook. 

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January 9, 2021 - Croatian skier Filip Zubčić wins second in Adelboden and achieved two second-place finishes, two days in a row!

For the second day in a row, and for the third time in his career in Adelboden, Filip Zubčić stepped onto the second pillar of the podium in the World Cup giant slalom race. Above him was only the incredible Frenchman Alexis Pinturault, who came to his third consecutive victory in this season's giant slalom, with just 26-hundredths ahead of the Zagreb skier.

Zubčić finished the first run in fifth place, just over one second behind the fastest - Swiss skier Loic Meillard. Zubčić was 72 hundredths slower than Pinturault, who had the second-best time.

With a traditionally aggressive and risky second run, Filip took the lead by beating the then leading Italian De Aleprandini by 80 hundredths of a second, which was the fourth-best time.

It was too difficult a task for Norwegian Alexander Aamodt Kilde and Swiss Marc Odermatt, who were better than Zubčić in the first run, but were almost half a second behind in the second.

Maestro Alexis Pinturault overcame the second race on the Chuenisbaergli slope without a single mistake and gave Loic Meillard a serious challenge.

The Swiss skier, who never won a giant slalom race, was on his way to second place, but made a big mistake in the middle of the course, completely lost speed and in the end, barely managed to reach third place with only a two-hundredths of a second advantage over compatriot Odermatt in fourth.

With his 33rd career victory and 17th in giant slalom races, Pinturault took the lead in the giant slalom standings with 440 points, 40 more than Odermatt. In third is Filip Zubčić, who reached 368 points on the seventh podium in his career.

The French skier also leads the standings for the Grand Crystal Globe with 675 points. Norwegian Aamodt Kilde is second with 560, and third is Odermatt with 501. Filip Zubčić is in fourth place with 455 points.

The skiers will fight for points in the slalom in Adelboden on Sunday, and Zubčić will be joined by the Croatian trio from Sljeme, Istok Rodeš, Matej Vidović, and Samuel Kolega. The first run is scheduled for 10:30 am, and the second at 1:30 pm.

Source: HRT

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