VAIL, Colo. -- Australia's Zali Steggall forged a blistering second run to vault from sixth place and capture the women's slalom Saturday in the World Alpine Ski Championships.
Steggall, only .13 of a second off the pace following a tightly bunched first run, nailed the bottom half of her second run and had a combined time of 1 minute, 33.97 seconds -- an impressive .80 seconds ahead of Sweden's Pernilla Wiberg.Norway's Trine Bakke, the first-run leader, took the bronze medal.
Steggall, who became the first Australian woman to win a World Cup race in November 1997 and who won the bronze medal in slalom in the 1998 Olympics, prevailed in a second-run free-for-all that saw the top 10 racers separated by only .28 seconds after the first heat.
Wiberg, tied with Steggall after a 46.44-second first run, moved into the lead with a solid 48.33 clocking for a total of 1:34.77.
The 24-year-old Steggall, skiing next, was .31 seconds slower than Wiberg through the first intermediate clocking but was fast and flawless through the bottom half and was timed in 47.53.
"I was pretty amazed when I crossed the finish line," Steggall said. "I had heard a huge cheer for Pernilla when I was standing in the start and I said, 'Well, OK, she's done it again, a good second run.' So I said, 'Well, I better do it, too.'
"I knew that I didn't have a chance in the top part because it's really not my cup of tea," Steggall said. "I was just waiting to get over that last pitch, because that was where I was going to be able to make it up.
"I actually heard (via the public address system) that I was behind," Steggall said. "I knew that I really had to nail the steep and just risk, keep that speed moving down the hill."
It was Australia's first gold medal in world championship history and its first medal of any kind since Malcolm Milne won bronze in downhill in the 1970 worlds.
Bakke struggled late in her run, and her 48.69 time gave her a combined 1:35.00.
"I've never experienced a race that was this close," Wiberg said of the first run in which 20 skiers were within one second of the lead. "I'll have to be satisfied with the silver today."
Although she didn't maintain her first-run lead, Bakke insisted that she "won" a bronze medal. "I've only been on the podium twice before, so I'm very happy with making it onto the podium today."
Norway's Andrine Flemmen, silver medalist in giant slalom on Thursday, charged from 13th place after the first run to finish fourth in 1:35.06. She had the second-fastest second run of 48.17.
Finland's Riitta Pitkanen was fifth in 1:35.12, followed by Austria's Karin Koellerer in 1:35.22 and Slovenia's Urska Hrovat in 1:35.23.
Italy's Deborah Compagnoni, the defending world champion in slalom, finished a disappointing eighth in 1:35.33. Compagnoni trailed Bakke by only .04 seconds in the first run.
Austria's Anita Wachter was ninth in 1:35.34, and Canada's Allison Forsyth took 10th in 1:35.59.
Slovenia's Alenka Dovzan, just .02 seconds behind Bakke in the first heat, had a slow second run to finish 12th.