Intro:

Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany wins the first women's World Cup slalom of the new season in Levi, Finland.

The German overcame a strong challenge from Finland's own Tanja Poutiainen.

Script:

105 miles inside the Arctic circle, Levi in Finland is the most northerly stop on Alpine skiing's World Cup calendar.

Last year, races had to be cancelled due to a surprising lack of snow, but for the first women's slalom of the new season there was, if anything, a little too much.

Austria's Marlies Schild certainly didn't enjoy the conditions - the 2012 World Cup winner and reigning world slalom champion skied out on the first of the two runs and lost the chance of taking a third career win.

Finland's own Tanja Poutiainen clocked the fastest time over the first run, ahead of Germany's Maria Hoefl-Riesch, the Olympic champion, and 17 year-old Mikaela Shiffrin.

Slovenia's Tina Maze, who won the season-opening giant slalom at Soelden in Austria two weeks ago, ended up in seventh, but charged down the 68-gate course on her second run to take the lead with a combined time of 1 minute 56.54 seconds.

Shiffrin, the bronze medallist at the 2011 Junior World Championships, held her nerve to cross the line in 1:56.32, shaving 0.22 seconds off Maze's time.

Next to go was Hoefl-Riesch and the five-time World Cup champion produced a near-flawless run, cutting almost three quarters of a second off Shiffrin's time.

Urged on by the crowd, Poutiainen had an advantage of 0.61 seconds at the first split, but her lead evaporated on the lower part of the course and in the end her combined time was 55 hundredths wide of the mark.

Hoefl-Riesch had her 23rd career win. Poutiainen's second place was her 47th podium finish compared to just Shiffrin's second.