Jan 23 (Reuters) – Elena Curtoni won World Cup super-G in Cortina d’Ampezzo on Sunday as fellow Italian Sofia Goggia crashed, a little over two weeks before the speed events at the Beijing Olympic Games.
Goggia, who leads the downhill World Cup standings, lost her balance in the third section of the treacherous course and appeared to twist a knee before getting up and slowly skiing down the piste.
Tournament organisers later said the 29-year-old had sprained her left knee.
“Sofia Goggia’s fall in today’s Super-G resulted in a sprained left knee, with a partial cruciate ligament injury already operated in 2013, a small fracture of the fibula and a muscular tendon injury,” a statement read.
Goggia has won five of the six World Cup downhills this season and was hoping to secure a double in Cortina d’Ampezzo after prevailing in Saturday’s downhill at the Italian resort.
Goggia also lost the lead in the super-G World Cup rankings to another Italian, Federica Brignone, who took fourth place.
She ended up 0.32 seconds behind Curtoni, who clocked a time of one minute 20.98 seconds to beat Austrian Tamara Tippler by 0.09 and Swiss Michelle Gisin by 0.24.
Brignone has 377 points in the super-G rankings to Curtoni’s 348 and Goggia’s 332.