Intro:

Home skier Maria Pietilae-Holmner held off World Cup overall leader Tina Maze to win Saturday's (December 13) slalom in Are, Sweden.

Script:

Sunrise in Are.

But up in the mountains, feverish activity at the Olympia Course for the third ladies slalom of the fledgling season.

Swedish skier Maria Pietilae-Holmner was the one to catch at the interval.

The 28-year-old trailed Tina Maze over much of the opening run - but found extra speed over the closing metres to take the lead with a time of 51.81 seconds.

Maze was 0.22 seconds adrift with discipline leader Frida Hansdotter slotting into third.

For the second run - Hansdotter overhauled America's Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin to take the overall lead.

Predictably, Maze beat her time.

But judging by the way Pietilae-Holmner started her second run.

She did enough to finish inside the Slovenian's mark.

It's Pietilae-Holmner's first World Cup win in nearly four years.