US ski star Mikaela Shiffrin shrugged off a near 10-month absence to finish second behind Petra Vlhova in the World Cup slalom first run at Levi in Finland on Saturday. The three-time overall World Cup winner was all set for a fourth consecutive overall World Cup title when she ended last season abruptly after the sudden death of her father. A bad back then forced her to skip the season-opener in Soelden. She goes into Saturday's second run just 15 hundredths of a second behind Slovakia'a Vlhova. Behind the two favourites came Austrian Katharina Liensberger at 52 hundredths of a second with Switzerland's Michelle Gisin at 1.07sec in fourth. The second run is scheduled to start at 1215GMT. rg/nr rg/