Kiwi alpine ski racer Alice Robinson has scored her second-best result of the season at the latest FIS World Cup giant slalom meet in Sestriere, Italy.
The 18-year-old world junior champion finished fifth with a combined time of 2m 21.59s, just 0.44s behind joint winners Federica Brignone of Italy and Petra Vlhova of Slovakia.
Robinson, the youngest competitor in the field, skied into sixth place on her first run, but clocked the fourth-fastest time on her second run to climb one spot on the ladder.
The Queenstown athlete was pleased with her performance, considering it was her first time competing on the Sestriere slopes.
"It was, again, my first time on the slope, so I wasn't fully attacking," she said. "In the second run, I attacked fully and put down some of my best turns.
"Unfortunately, I still had a couple of mistakes that caused me to lose some time, but I'm pretty happy with my performance. It was a super-tight race, so you have to risk it to be in there."
The result was Robinson's fourth top-10 finish of the season, highlighted with victory in the opening race at Sölden, Austria.
Her other results are a 'did not finish' in Killington, US, 10th at Courchevel, France, and ninth at the last race in Lienz, Austria.
Robinson is fifth in the overall giant slalom standings. Her next World Cup race is at Maribor, Slovenia on February 15.
