Sawt Falasteen - Schwarz breaks World Cup duck with Alta Badia giant slalom victory

Austrian Schwarz clocked a combined time of two minutes and 35.02 seconds over two runs down the Gran Risa piste in northern Italy, 0.18sec ahead of Brazil's Lucas Pinheiro Braathen who was denied a first-ever World Cup win at the last.

Stefan Brennsteiner's third place, 0.22sec off the pace, was enough for the Austrian to take a five-point lead in the giant slalom standings over Marco Odermatt, who was 0.82sec back in sixth.

Schwarz, who also led after the first run, is second in the overall World Cup standings but trails Odermatt by a whopping 454 points.

Schwarz's last World Cup victory came at the Madonna Di Campiglio slalom almost two years ago to the day, and before Sunday that was also the 30-year-old's last podium finish in the elite alpine skiing competition.

Henrik Kristoffersen lost further ground in the race for the giant slalom and overall World Cup title after finishing more than a second behind Schwarz in 11th.

The Norwegian, who trails Odermatt by 479 points in the overall standings, will have another chance to close the gap with Monday's slalom, a discipline in which he is the reigning World Cup champion.

F.AbuZaid--SF-PST