SEMMERING, Austria (AP) — Olympic champion Sara Hector led a tight women’s World Cup giant slalom after the opening run Saturday as discipline leader Alice Robinson skied out.
Chasing her first victory in nearly a year, Hector was 0.02 seconds faster than Austria’s Julia Scheib and 0.13 faster than Italian-born Lara Colturi, who starts for Albania.
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New Zealand's Alice Robinson reacts after skiing off course during an alpine ski, women's World Cup giant slalom, in Semmering, Austria, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin ahead of an alpine ski, women's World Cup giant slalom, in Semmering, Austria, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin competes during an alpine ski, women's World Cup giant slalom, in Semmering, Austria, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)
Sweden's Sara Hector starts an alpine ski, women's World Cup giant slalom, in Semmering, Austria, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta)
Sweden's Sara Hector competes during an alpine ski, women's World Cup giant slalom, in Semmering, Austria, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)
“It’s not easy, the course set is unrhythmic. I just tried to give gas and ski cleanly,” Hector told Austrian TV.
Hector has seven career World Cup wins, all in giant slalom, but the Swedish skier has not triumphed since winning a race in Slovenia in the first weekend of January.
Mikaela Shiffrin, who won the race in Semmering near capital Vienna four times between 2012 and 2022, was among the fastest starters but seemed to hold back after catching a few bumps and nearly skiing out. The American star finished in eighth position had 1.16 seconds to make up in the second leg later Saturday.
Shiffrin, the 2018 Olympic champion who holds the women’s World Cup record of 22 GS victories, has not been on a giant slalom podium in her past nine races — the longest streak in her career since the first 15 GS races of her career without top-three result in 2010-11.
Dominating slalom this season with four wins from as many races, Shiffrin is still trying to regain her form in GS, more than a year after suffering a deep puncture wound in her side and severe trauma to her oblique muscles in a bad crash at a race in Killington, Vermont.
A two-time winner this season, Robinson clocked the fastest intermediate time before the New Zealand racer lost her balance and slid off the course in a left turn.
“I got unlucky and off balance and I pressured in a bad spot and just went face flat,” Robinson said. “I am really disappointed not to be walking away with any points.”
Coming into the race, Robinson led Scheib by 12 points in the discipline standings. The Austrian skier also won twice, including the most recent GS in Tremblant, Quebec, three weeks ago.
Shiffrin’s teammate Nina O’Brien had a nasty-looking crash after a strong start to her run but the American appeared unhurt.
AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing
New Zealand's Alice Robinson reacts after skiing off course during an alpine ski, women's World Cup giant slalom, in Semmering, Austria, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin ahead of an alpine ski, women's World Cup giant slalom, in Semmering, Austria, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)
United States' Mikaela Shiffrin competes during an alpine ski, women's World Cup giant slalom, in Semmering, Austria, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)
Sweden's Sara Hector starts an alpine ski, women's World Cup giant slalom, in Semmering, Austria, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta)
Sweden's Sara Hector competes during an alpine ski, women's World Cup giant slalom, in Semmering, Austria, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)
BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand and Cambodia signed a ceasefire agreement on Saturday to end weeks of fighting along their border over competing territorial claims.
The agreement took effect at noon (0500 GMT) and calls for a halt in military movements and airspace violation for military purposes.
Only Thailand has carried out airstrikes, hitting sites in Cambodia as recently as Saturday morning, according to the Cambodian Defense Ministry.
The deal also calls for Thailand, after the ceasefire has held for 72 hours, to repatriate 18 Cambodian soldiers it has held as prisoners since earlier fighting in July. Their release has been a major demand of the Cambodian side.
Within hours of the signing, Thailand's Foreign Ministry protested to Cambodia that a Thai soldier sustained a permanent disability when he stepped on an anti-personnel land mine it charged had been laid by Cambodian forces.
The agreement was signed by the countries’ defense ministers, Cambodia’s Tea Seiha and Thailand’s Nattaphon Narkphanit, at a border checkpoint. It followed three-day lower-level talks by military officials.
It declares that the sides are committed to an earlier ceasefire that ended five days of fighting in July and follow-up agreements.
The original July ceasefire was brokered by Malaysia and pushed through by pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who threatened to withhold trade privileges unless Thailand and Cambodia agreed. It was formalized in more detail in October at a regional meeting in Malaysia that Trump attended.
Despite those deals, the countries carried on a bitter propaganda war and minor cross-border violence continued, escalating in early December to widespread heavy fighting.
Thailand has lost 26 soldiers and one civilian as a direct result of the combat since Dec. 7, according to officials. Thailand has also reported 44 civilian deaths.
Cambodia hasn’t issued an official figure on military casualties, but says that 30 civilians have been killed and 90 injured. Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated on both sides of the border.
“Today’s ceasefire also paves the way for the displaced people who are living in the border areas to be able to return to their homes, work in the fields, and even allow their children to be able to return to schools and resume their studies,” Cambodia's Defense Minister Tea Seiha told reporters after the signing.
Each side blamed the other for initiating the fighting and claimed to be acting in self-defense.
The agreement also calls on both sides to adhere to international agreements against deploying land mines, a major concern of Thailand.
Thai soldiers along the border have been wounded in at least 10 incidents this year by what Thailand says were newly planted Cambodian mines. Cambodia says the mines were left over from decades of civil war that ended in the late 1990s.
Following the latest injury on Saturday, Thailand's Foreign Ministry noted that the new agreement “includes key provisions on joint humanitarian demining operations to ensure the safety of military personnel and civilians in the border areas as soon as possible.”
Another clause says the two sides “agree to refrain from disseminating false information or fake news.”
The agreement calls for a resumption of previous measures to demarcate the border. The sides also agreed to cooperate in suppressing transnational crimes. That's primarily a reference to online scams perpetrated by organized crime that have bilked victims around the world of billions of dollars each year. Cambodia is a center for such criminal enterprises.
Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who was instrumental in putting together the original ceasefire, said the new agreement “reflects a shared recognition that restraint is required, above all in the interest of civilians.”
Many clauses similar to those in Saturday's agreement were included in October's ceasefire document, and were open to various interpretations and generally honored only in part. These included provisions concerning land mines and the Cambodian prisoners.
The fragility of the new agreement was underlined by Thailand’s Defense Ministry spokesperson Surasant Kongsiri in a news briefing after Saturday's signing. He said that the safe return of civilians to their homes would indicate the situation had stabilized enough to allow the repatriation of the captured Cambodian soldiers.
“However if the ceasefire does not materialize, this would indicate a lack of sincerity on the Cambodian side to create sure peace,” he said. "Therefore, the 72- hour ceasefire beginning today is not an act of trust nor unconditional acceptance but a time frame to tangibly prove whether Cambodia can truly cease the use of weapons, provocations and threats in the area.”
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Sopheng Cheang reported from Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
CORRECTS NAME OF THAI DEFENSE MINISTER - In this photo released by Agence Kampuchea Press (AKP), Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Seiha, left, stands with Thai Defense Minister Nattaphon Narkphanit, right, at the General Border Committee Meeting in Chanthaburi Province, Thailand Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AKP via AP)
CORRECTS NAME OF THAI DEFENSE MINISTER - In this photo released by Agence Kampuchea Press (AKP), Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Seiha, left, stands with Thai Defense Minister Nattaphon Narkphanit, right, at the General Border Committee Meeting in Chanthaburi Province, Thailand Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AKP via AP)
In this photo released by Agence Kampuchea Press (AKP), Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Seiha, left, stands with Thai Defense Minister Natthaphon Narkphanit, right, at the General Border Committee Meeting in Chanthaburi Province, Thailand Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AKP via AP)
Illumination flares fired by Thai military forces shine in Poipet, Cambodia, as seen from Sa Kaeo, Thailand, on Friday, Dec. 26, 2025, following clashes between Thai and Cambodian soldiers. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)
The Thai military fires artillery towards Cambodia, Friday, Dec. 26, 2025, seen from Thailand's Sa Kaeo province. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)
In this photo released by Agence Kampuchea Press (AKP), Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Seiha, left, stands with Thai Defense Minister Natthaphon Narkphanit, right, at the General Border Committee Meeting in Chanthaburi Province, Thailand Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AKP via AP) g
