Giant Slalom Crystal Globe For Marco Odermatt, Liensberger Wins Are SL

Henrik Kristoffersen stormed to victory at Kranjska Gora but it was Marco Odermatt who grabbed the headlines as his second-place finish was enough to secure the Giant Slalom title. Here is all you need to know:

Heading into Saturday’s race in Slovenia, Odermatt knew that a topthree finish may well be enough to secure the crystal globe. However, it looked unlikely when he placed seventh after his first run.

The Swiss ace, who claimed gold last month in the Giant Slalom at the Games in Bejing, produced an excellent second run to post a combined time of 2:18.61. This was enough to finish jointsecond alongside Lucas Braathen and secure a discipline title for the first time.

Despite there being two races left in the Giant Slalom season, Odermatt holds a lead of 207 points over Kristoffersen and cannot be caught.

Odermatt said: “It’s a big relief and wonderful to have secured the globe two races before the end.”

The second place finish also helped Odermatt to close in on the overall title as he stretched his FIS World Cup lead over Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde to 269 points.

Kristoffersen also had plenty to celebrate after delivering an attacking second run that helped him to secure his sixth Giant Slalom career win, matching the record of Kjetil André Aamodt for most GS wins by a skier from Norway.

Kristoffersen said: “I am super happy. I skied a little safe in the first run, but the second run was really nice. It was a really good day.”

Defending overall champion Alexis Pinturault, who led the race after the opening run, finished in 11th as he continues to search for his first win of the season

For the women Katharina Liensberger (AUT) returned to winning ways in the Are, which gave her her first World Cup success a year ago.

The Austrian world champion recovered from fifth place and beat the real surprise of the day, Mina Fuerst Holtmann (NOR), by 16 hundredths. The third place went to Michelle Gisin (SUI), who took three podiums in three different disciplines this year.

Lena Duerr (GER), who was in the lead after the first run, was fifth, just 34 hundredths away from her first career success in slalom.

Slalom queens Petra Vlhova (SVK) and Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) were left off the podium. Today's result ignites the fight for the overall ranking, with the Slovakian, fourth, taking 21 points from the American, only ninth today.