Semmering (Austria) (AFP) - Mikaela Shiffrin produced a flying first run to take a firm grip on the World Cup giant slalom event in Semmering on Tuesday.
The 27-year-old American, who is looking for her 78th World Cup victory, clocked a time of 1 minute 5.49 seconds, 0.72secs quicker than Slovakian Petra Vlhova with French skier Tessa Worsley just 0.01sec further back.
Olympic champion Sara Hector was sixth fastest, 0.96sec behind Shiffrin.
Shiffrin, the overall World Cup leader, is approaching the women's record of 82 World Cup victories set by Vonn, who retired in 2019, and is also on track for the 86 World Cup victories of Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark.
The second run begins at 1200 GMT.
