Méribel (France) (AFP) - A hard-pushing Mikaela Shiffrin skied out of the slalom in the defence of her world alpine combined title in Meribel on Monday.
The American star straddled the penultimate gate as she strained every sinew to make up time on Italian leader Federica Brignone, meaning she will have to wait until Wednesday's super-G in her bid to bag a record-equalling seventh world individual gold.
Sixth fastest after the morning's opening super-G, Shiffrin was in complete control of the slalom down the Roc de Fer piste, gaining fast on Brignone's aggregate time and without doubt would have gone top of the leaderboard had she come across the line cleanly.
Shiffrin's dramatic exit left her mother Eileen holding her head in her hands in the finish area amid groans from the sizeable crowd in the French resort.
The 27-year-old will hope there is no repeat of her disastrous outing at last year's Beijing Winter Olympics where she failed to finish the slalom, giant slalom and alpine combined -- three events in which she had been a keen favourite.
She also failed to get close to the podium in both the super-G and downhill.
That form has not been repeated on the World Cup circuit this season, however, with Shiffrin winning 11 races (including five slaloms) to come within one win of Ingemar Stenmark's overall World Cup record for victories (86).
