Slovakia's Petra Vlhová won her 24th World Cup race today in Zagreb ©Getty Images

Slovakia's Petra Vlhová denied rival Mikaela Shiffrin from making slalom history with another win in Zagreb in the event, winning her third successive race in the Croatian capital on the latest leg of the International Ski Federation (FIS) Alpine Ski World Cup.

It was her 24th FIS World Cup career gold medal and third Snow Queen Trophy, extending her lead at the top of the slalom standings in the 2021-2022 season as well as moving her into second in the overall ranks behind Shiffrin.

If the American had won today, she would have made alpine skiing history by having the most victories in one event, which she currently shares with Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark.

Shiffrin has 46 World Cup wins in slalom, while Stenmark has the same number in giant slalom.

Vlhová was always going to make it difficult for Shiffrin, having built up a lead of 0.64sec after the first run, giving her a great advantage heading into the second.

Mikaela Shiffrin needs one more slalom win to set a new Alpine Ski World Cup record for wins in a single event ©Getty Images
Mikaela Shiffrin needs one more slalom win to set a new Alpine Ski World Cup record for wins in a single event ©Getty Images

She finished in 1min 56.99sec to claim gold, with the American winning the silver, 0.5sec behind.

As usual, the pair were well clear of the rest of the field, with Katharina Liensberger of Austria taking the bronze more than 2sec behind the Slovakian.

Shiffrin missed the last slalom leg due to testing positive for COVID-19.

Switzerland's Wendy Holdener and Canada's Ali Nullmeyer completed the top five, with the latter having her best World Cup result today.

The next leg of the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup is scheduled to take place in Kranjska Gora in Slovenia on Saturday (January 8) and Sunday (January 9) for giant slalom and slalom events after these were moved from Maribor due to warm weather and lack of snow.