Sawt Falasteen - Austria's Brennsteiner wins Copper Mountain giant slalom

Brennsteiner, leader after the first run, dug in on the second to win with a total time of 2min 30.98sec -- 95-hundredths of a second ahead of Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen.

Croatian Filip Zubicic was third, one second behind the winner.

"It means a lot for me," said Brennsteiner, calling his first career triumph at the age of 34 "just amazing".

He had posted the fastest time as the first out of the gate on the first run, and his 11th-quickest time on the second run was enough for the triumph.

Odermatt, the four-time defending World Cup overall champion and winner of the super-G on Thursday, went off course on the first run after losing his balance rounding a right hand gate.

Odermatt, who was ahead of the pace set by Brennsteiner at the time of his mistake, failed to finish a World Cup race for the first time in almost a year, ending a streak of 23 finishes inside the top seven.

He had opened the season -- highlighted by the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in February -- with a giant slalom win in Soelden last month.

He still leads the overall standings with 200 points with Austrian Marco Schwartz -- fourth on Friday -- second on 166 and Kristoffersen third on 158.

Brennsteiner seized the lead in the giant slalom standings with 150 points ahead of Schwarz (130), Kristoffersen (116) and Odermatt (100).

The alpine World Cup circuit is back at Copper Mountain this year for the first time since 2001. After two men's races women will race a giant slalom and slalom on Saturday and Sunday.

Z.AlNajjar--SF-PST