Shiffrin misses historic world medal as Rast wins women's slalom

SAALBACH, Austria, Feb 15 (AFP): US star Mikaela Shiffrin finished fifth to miss out on a historic world medal as Switzerland's Camille Rast won the women's slalom in Saalbach on Saturday.

Rast, the leader after the first run, held her nerve in the second to clock a winning aggregate time of 1min 58.00sec.

Swiss teammate Wendy Holdener claimed silver, at 0.46sec, with Austria's Katharina Liensberger taking bronze (+1.32).

"This is crazy! I had a good feeling today from the warm up. felt good on the snow and I just went for it," beamed Rast.

Shiffrin had finished third fastest in the first leg to remain on course to become the most decorated alpine World Ski Championships racer in history.

If the American had won a slalom medal of any colour, she would have surpassed Christl Cranz, who competed for Germany in the 1930s. Both Shiffrin and Cranz have won 15 world championships medals.