Hoefl-Riesch wins tight women's slalom

ARE, Sweden, March 10 (UPI) -- Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany won a narrow victory over Veronika Zuzulova of Slovakia in Saturday's women's World Cup slalom in Sweden.

Hoefl-Riesch turned in a combined-run time of 1 minute, 49.85 seconds, just 1/100th of a tick ahead of Zuzulova.

Canadian Marie-Michele Gagnon took third and Mikaela Shiffrin was the top U.S. finisher with a ninth. American Lindsey Vonn skied out and Tina Maze of Slovenia placed eighth.

Hoefl-Riesch credited some new skis with helping her navigate the deep ruts on the course. "I tried them today for the first time," she said. "It looks like they're working well."