Sweden's slalom World Champion Anja Paerson confirmed her outstanding form in this part of the season in winning her second slalom in a row in Lienz a day after finishing 3rd in a giant slalom.

The skier from Taernaby, who dominated the slalom at Sestriere earlier this month, beat by 5/100 of a second Germany's Monika Bergmann and America's Kristine Koznick who tied for 2nd place. She was already the fastest in the first run.

Another Swede, Ylva Nowen, was 4th, her best result in slalom since 1998, when she clinched the slalom World Cup standings.

France's Laure Pequegnot, the winner from Copper Mountain, only came in 7th and lost her lead in the slalom World Cup standings to Paerson.

Also in the points this time, the 2001 Overall World Cup champion, Janica Kostelic, 11th after two controlled runs. She only lost 73/100 on the winner.

The best and only Austrian to finish the second run was Michaela Kirchgasser who reached a fine 14th place after starting in 70th position in the first run.

A happy Anja

Michaela Dorfmeister didn't compete in this last race prior New Year but she remains in the lead in the Overall World Cup standings in front of Anja Paerson, the most consistent skiers so far in the technical specialties. She always reached the podium in the last four races. "I'm really proud to have won this difficult slalom, it was quite a battle in the second run because of the degraded course" she said.

"I made two mistakes at the middle of the second run and I was quite lucky to win at the end with such a small margin" she added. "I fought as hard as I could in the last gates because I knew I was in trouble".

"I had to wait three years to win my second slalom after my first success in California in December 1998, and now I celebrate my second consecutive victory in three weeks, it's quite amazing".

"I have trained hard with my team last summer and this is the result for our engagement. I'm also happy that Ylwa Nowen has found back her slalom form after some good results in giant slalom. I think that our team is pretty strong and motivated this season".

A very aggressive racer on course and in life, Anja is also pretty consistent this season which helped her to take over the lead in the slalom standings. A year ago, she wore the leader's red bib in giant slalom but she could not prevent Sonja Nef to conquer the Crystal Trophy at the end of the season.

Her chance to capture the slalom standings are strong since none of the other favorites were able to reach the podium more than once so far.

Janica Kostelic fights back

The dominator from last season, Janica Kostelic, is still not moving at her best level, but at least she was able to score some points in slalom, which was not the case in Sestriere in her first race this winter.

The skier from Zagreb still feels some pain at her shoulder and her leg injured during her spectacular crash at Val d'Isere in giant slalom.

In the first run, she was skiing smoothly without taking extra-risks and she was satisfied to lose only six tenths on Paerson.

In the afternoon, she lost more time on the fastest skier, Ylwa Nowen, only 16th in the opening run. The course was obviously in much better shape for the first starters in the afternoon.

Janica clocked the same time that Paerson in that run, but it was not enough to keep her promising 6th place from the first run.

"That's OK, it was not so funny to race here today" she said. "I didn't ski very well yet it's nice to see that I didn't lose more on the leaders. I still need more training days to find back my best rhythm. The most important now is to recover a good health as soon as possible. I know that I can ski much better".

The next women's races will be held next week in Slovenia's Maribor where two Giant Slaloms and a slalom will take place in front of the usual large crowd. On the 5th, Janica will celebrate her 20th birthday!