Mikaela Shiffrin and Petra Vlhova set for another duel for victory in rainy World Cup night race

COURCHEVEL, France — Slalom rivals Mikaela Shiffrin and Petra Vlhova defied tough conditions at a women’s World Cup night race Thursday to set up yet another duel for victory.

Racing in the rain, Shiffrin timed 55.24 seconds in the opening run and was 0.17 faster than her Slovakian competitor, with the rest of the field finishing more than a second off the American’s lead.

Third-placed Katharina Liensberger of Austria had 1.06 to make up in the final run later Thursday, and Shiffrin’s American teammate Paula Moltzan was 1.63 behind in fourth.

Only five more racers finished within two seconds of Shiffrin’s time.

“Yeah, it's tough. You see a big gap, that's because there's not much to push on,” Shiffrin said about the weakened surface of the Stade E. Allais course.

Shiffrin, coming off a rare DNF in Sunday’s super-G in nearby Val d’Isere, opened the race and avoided major mistakes on a difficult course set by Vlhova’s coach Mauro Pini.

The Slovakian, who started second, was faster than Shiffrin in three of the four sections, but had a costly mistake in the second where she lost 0.47 on the American.

“I felt very good at my skiing, but it was a huge advantage to start number one. It's quite challenging conditions,” Shiffrin said. “My hope is that it gets more solid as the night goes on.”

Vlhova won the first slalom this season and Shiffrin the next two, including the race in Killington, Vermont, in November. The American could win three consecutive slaloms for the first time since 2019, when she won six in a row.

Last January, Lena Duerr became the last skier other than Shiffrin or Vlhova to win a World Cup slalom. On Thursday, the German had the third-fastest time at the first check point before straddling a gate.

Shiffrin also leads the overall standings, 63 points ahead of Federica Brignone, who won Sunday's super-G. The Italian rarely competes in slalom and sat out Thursday's race.