Shiffrin matches Stenmark's World Cup slalom wins record

A blistering second run saw Mikaela Shiffrin take slalom victory at the World Cup Finals in Soldeu, Andorra.

It was her 40th alpine skiing World Cup slalom triumph, equalling the all-time record held by Ingemar Stenmark.

The double Olympic champion, who turned 24 on Wednesday, trailed Wendy Holdener after the first run.

But she just got the better of her Swiss rival saying, "The second run was a really big fight. I was just trying to be aggressive and do my best skiing."

Slovakia's Petra Vlhova was third, over a second off the pace.

The win also took Shiffrin's record World Cup wins tally for the season to 16, two clear of Vreni Schneider's previous best set 30 years ago.

She broke Schneider's mark last weekend in Spindleruv Mlyn in the Czech Republic.

Two-way battle

Shiffrin and Holdener were a class apart in the final slalom of the season.

Vlhova, wearing start bib 2, went down in 54.36 but the very next skier made that look pedestrian.

Holdener, who claimed her second combined world title last month in Sweden, was a massive 1.22 seconds quicker.

Only Shiffrin came close to that time, but would she able to erase the 0.28s deficit on the second run?

She certainly did her bit, clocking 54.73 to set the target.

Holdener actually extended her advantage to four-tenths of a second at the midway checkpoint, but then started to lose time.

And a couple of minor mistakes lower down proved costly as she finished seven-hundredths outside Shiffrin's time and had to settle for second place.

But it was a 59th career World Cup victory for Shiffrin who collected her crystal globe for the slalom title which she had clinched four weeks ago.

Vlhova was second in the standings, almost 300 points behind, with Holdener third.