Finland's Tanja Poutiainen clinches giant slalom in Cortina d'Ampezzo

AFP - Finland's Tanja Poutiainen won the women's World Cup giant slalom here on Sunday ahead of Germans Viktoria Rebensburg and Kathrin Hoelzl.

Poutiainen clocked a combined time of 2min 26.51sec over the two legs, 1.05sec ahead of Rebensberg with Hoelzl at 1.45, for her second World Cup victory of the season.

Austrian Kathrin Zettel, who notched up a slalom double at the Slovenian resort of Maribor last week, was fastest down the first leg but mistimed a turn on the second run and crashed out.

American Lindsey Vonn, fresh from winning Friday's super-G and Saturday's downhill, finished 19th but retained her lead of the World Cup overall standings.

She currently sits atop the rankings on 1,106 points, 56 ahead of Germany's Maria Riesch (1,050), who was eighth in the giant slalom.

Competition for the giant slalom cristal globe will come down to a face-off at the season-ending Garmish-Partenkirchen event between current leader Hoelzl (391 points), Zettel (365) and Slovenian Tina Maze (272).