March 20, 2022 - World junior slalom champion 18-year-old Zrinka Ljutić took the opportunity to compete in the World Cup finals in Meribel, France, where she won fifth place in the strongest competition!

Slovenian Andreja Slokar won the first slalom victory in her career, reports Gol.hr.

The Zagreb skier achieved an excellent result in the first run when she reached ninth place with the starting number of 25, and with her uncompromising performance in the final run, she achieved the sixth-best time for the fifth place in the end, which brought her 45 points.

The 24-year-old Slovenian Andreja Slokar skied exceptionally in the second run, and after the sixth time in the first slalom, she achieved a great advantage over the competitors. In the second performance, the Slovenian skier was 1.23 seconds faster than the leader of the first run German Lena Duerr, which in the end brought her 48 hundredths of an advantage. In the end, the best slalom skier in the world and the Olympic winner in this discipline, Petra Vlhova, finished in third and was 81 hundredths behind the winner.

The big day for Slovenian skiers was completed by Ana Bucik, who won fourth place with 1.04 seconds behind her compatriot. However, Zrinka Ljutić was 45 hundredths of a second slower than Slokar in the second run, and in the end, she finished 1.22 seconds behind.

Unfortunately, Leona Popović finished the second competition in a row with a mistake in the first run. As a result, the best Croatian skier ended the season with 146 points, which brought her 14th place among slalom skiers, while Zrinka Ljutić finished with 50 points as the 30th among the best slalom skiers in the world.

The skiers will ride the giant slalom in Meribel on Sunday, with the first run at 9:00 and the second at noon. Four more skiers have a chance to win the small Crystal Globe: Sweden's Sara Hector (522 points), France's Tessa Worley (517), America's Mikaela Shiffrin (471), and Slovakia's Petra Vlhova (431). Croatia will not have a representative in the last race of the World Cup this season.

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January 5, 2022 - Poor track conditions, especially in the lower part with strong winds, forced the World Ski Organization (FIS) to cancel the Snow Queen Trophy day 2 on Sljeme.

For now, the possibility of moving the race to Thursday is being considered, though it is questionable considering that the giant slalom in Adelboden is already on Saturday.

The organizers tried to postpone the start of the race, but in the end, they decided that they would not be able to go on. 

No matter how much effort the organizers put in to keep the ground solid, the exceptionally high temperatures over the past few days have taken their toll and jeopardized the race, and eventually, its cancellation.

The latest information about the Sljeme race was revealed to HTV by Vedran Pavlek.

"FIS representatives did not support the organizers' efforts from the early morning; they came very negatively in the morning. We did everything possible; the trail was in excellent condition. The wind stopped exactly around 12 or 1 pm; around 2:15 pm, the northeast wind started. We were looking for patience. When we started number one, the track was already 10 inches harder. The trail was getting firmer, but they did not want to accept what was there. The race is planned for tomorrow, the first run at 1 pm, the second at 4:10 pm. Snow is coming tonight, and it'll be -2; it should be freezing. We need to find time, but we are on the right track," Pavlek believes.

He pointed out that the FIS representatives did not have the patience:

"There was not enough patience. We grew up on this mountain. The forecast for five days showed a rapid drop in temperature. It just took patience and confidence."

What are the odds of racing tomorrow?

"Plan B is quite safe; we have the support of the FIS, they gave us the green light, now it's just a matter of television companies. Representatives of the national teams gave excellent support; some were negative. But that's not the topic; you don't need to ask the coaches about it; slalom is not dangerous, it's not downhill, lives are not in danger. We are working on plan B, and I believe we will succeed. See you tomorrow," concluded Pavlek.

This was supposed to be the 13th edition of the men's slalom for the Snow Queen Trophy. Depending on the weather and the conditions on the track, we will see if the men's slalom race will go on at all this year.

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January 4, 2022 - Day one of the Snow Queen Trophy was held on Tuesday for the women's World Cup slalom, in which Slovak skier Petra Vlhova celebrated!

Slovak skier Petra Vlhova celebrated the Snow Queen Trophy World Cup slalom on Sljeme in Zagreb on Tuesday. Croatia's best skier Leona Popović finished seventh for the best result in her career, reports HRT.

Leona Popović was 14th in the first run and reached the first top 10 in her career in the second run, 3.05 seconds behind first. The 24-year-old from Mrkopalj placed 14th in Levi as the best result of her career until now. 

The leading slalom skier in the world, Vlhova, took advantage of the number one start and was the fastest to cross the first run of the Sljeme Red Slope in harsh conditions on a trail covered with leaves, high temperatures, and strong southern winds. In the second run, the Slovak skier kept the advantage and celebrated for the third consecutive time on Sljeme.

The second place was won by the four-time Sljeme winner, American Mikaela Shifrin, who just returned to the World Cup competition in Zagreb, eight days after testing positive for coronavirus. In third was Austrian Katharina Liensberger (+2.11)

Zrinka Ljutić started as the 40th in the first run, and after a very good first pass, she made a mistake and gave up, while Andrea Komšić's lag of 4.78 seconds was still too big to enter the second run. As a result, she was 32nd, only 31 hundredths of a second behind 30th. 

Vlhova leads with 480 points ahead of Shiffrin (340) in the slalom standings, while Popović came in twelfth place with 95 points. Shiffrin leads the overall standings with 830 points, 115 more than Vlhova, while Leona is 39th.

Due to epidemiological reasons, there are no spectators on Sljeme this year. 

The men's slalom will take place in Zagreb on Wednesday.

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Croatian skier Istok Rodeš, who will celebrate his 23rd birthday in late January, took great advantage of his first run where he was ranked in the top 30 and secured the second run in which he exploded for seventh place.

"I think I'm in great shape and I'm pleased with Sljeme," said 22-year-old Istok Rodeš from Varaždin who won the seventh place in the World Cup slalom, which is currently taking place in the Italian Madonna di Campiglio, reports Gol.hr on December 22, 2018. 

And did we mention that Rodeš had a start number of 66 in the first run, making this feat all the more impressive?

The success of Croatian skiers was completed by Matej Vidović, who won the 18th place and also achieved the best result in the competition for the World Cup.

Rodeš’ seventh place is the second best result of Croatian skiers in Madonna di Campiglio, where Ivica Kostelić was the winner in 2003 and won seventh place in 2005. Also, this is the first Croatian top 10 in the slalom since Ivić's 10th place at the finals of the World Cup in Lenzerheide back in 2014.

“A super race. I’m very pleased. Today, everything has fallen into place,” said the 2016 World junior champion in the slalom.

Specialists for technical disciplines will now have a brief pause. In Oslo, on January 1, a parallel slalom will run, while the next classic slalom will take place at Sljeme’s Red Slope in Zagreb next month for the Snow Queen Trophy.

Saturday’s success, as well as the excellent results at the last European Cup races, have helped Croatian skiers receive better start numbers for the Sljeme race. 

Matej Vidović will perform for the first time at the Snow Queen in the first 30, Istok Rodeš will have a start number of around 40, Elias Kolega 43, and Filip Zubčić around 58.

The skiers will compete for points on Sljeme in Zagreb on January 6. The first run will begin at 12:15 and the second at 15:30. The day before, female skiers will take the slopes, with the first run at 13:00 and the second at 16:00.

To read more about Croatian sport, follow TCN's dedicated page.