Portugal Colonial - Ljutic edges Holdener for World Cup slalom victory

Ljutic, who won the Semmering slalom last weekend, and her Swiss rival had been tied as leaders after the first leg.

But the Croat did just enough on the second run to clinch victory, her combined time of 1min 39.62sec meaning she finished 0.16sec ahead of Holdener.

Sweden's Anna Swenn Larsson rounded out the podium, at 1.19sec.

US star Mikaela Shiffrin and Slovakia's Petra Vlhova were both absent through injury.

In their absence, all eyes were on Sara Hector to see if the Swede could follow up on her giant slalom win on Saturday.

But Hector had to be happy with a sixth-place finish, 1.96sec off Ljutic's pace, behind the Swiss pair of Camille Rast and Melanie Meillard.

Ljutic's victory, just the second of her fledgling career, saw the Croat go atop the overall standings on 456 points, nine points ahead of Hector.

R.J.Fidalgo--PC