Slovenia's Tina Maze wins Alpine Skiing World Cup slalom race in Levi

The Slovenian, winner of gold medals in the downhill and the giant slalom at the Winter Olympics in February, emerged victorious in just one World Cup race last season, which came in the downhill at Cortina d'Ampezzo in January.

However, the 2013 overall World Cup winner produced a reminder of her quality on the black course in northern Finland to claim the maximum 100-point haul with an overall time of one minute and 55.15 seconds from her two runs.

Maze's precise showing was in stark contrast to that of American Mikaela Shiffrin (1:57.22secs), who won the slalom title last term and gold in the same discipline at the Olympics, as the 19-year-old only able to finish down in 11th.

Having carved out an advantage of 0.39secs from the first run, Maze was put under considerable pressure ahead of her second ski as Sweden's Frida Hansdotter (1:55.49secs) made a push for her second World Cup race win of her career.

Hansdotter recovered from some mistakes on the steep part of the course to take the advantage from Austria's Kathrin Zettel (1:55.67secs) prior to Maze's second attempt.

But Maze rose to the challenge and delivered a reminder of her substantial pedigree to secure her 24th World Cup race win, with Hansdotter and Zettel rounding off the podium positions.

The women's World Cup tournament now moves to Shiffrin's home state of Colorado, with giant slalom and slalom races to be held in Aspen in two weeks' time.