Nef completes Swiss double

Nef (centre) celebrates her Swiss slalom title with runners-up Zenhäusern and Kummer Keystone

Sonja Nef has wrapped up an amazing season with two victories at the Swiss alpine skiing championships in Melchsee-Frutt.

Having already clinched this winter’s World Cup and world championship giant slalom titles, Nef took the chance to grab some glory closer to home with wins in Saturday’s giant slalom race and Sunday’s slalom.

Saturday’s race posed few difficulties for the 28-year-old from Aargau, who finished more than a second ahead of Swiss team colleagues Corinne Rey-Bellet and Lilian Kummer.

On Sunday, though, she had to fight hard to see off a strong challenge from an unexpected quarter. Petra Zakurilova, who is Czech by nationality but trains in Switzerland, came close to securing a foreign victory at the national championships.

Ahead of Nef following Sunday’s first run, Zakurilova was unable to sustain her challenge in the second run. Nef finished 33 hundredths of a second ahead of the Czech athlete, whose nationality denied her even the commiseration of a silver medal.

The award in question went to Bürchen skier Ines Zenhäusern, while fourth place (and the bronze medal) went to the promising Kummer, who has also enjoyed a remarkable season after clinching the overall women’s Europa Cup title.

Nef is now looking forward to a well-deserved two-week holiday in the Indian Ocean before returning to Switzerland for the start of summer training.

swissinfo with agencies