COURCHEVEL, France (AP) — Austrian skier Marco Schwarz took a big lead in the first run of the men’s giant slalom at the world championships Friday.
Schwarz beat the time of Olympic GS champion Marco Odermatt by 0.58 seconds. Odermatt has won four of the six giant slaloms on the World Cup circuit this season and took the downhill world title five days ago.
Zan Kranjec of Slovenia came 0.76 behind in third and was the only other skier to finish within a second of Schwarz’s time.
Defending champion Mathieu Faivre of France finished nearly four seconds off the pace.
A combination of slippery ice and grippy snow made the race on the shady L’Eclipse course challenging.
Lower ranked skiers were still coming down the course.
Schwarz won bronze in GS at the worlds two years ago but only got his first World Cup podium in the discipline in the last race before the worlds, in Schladming, Austria in January.
Schwarz posted the fastest second-run time in that race, which was won by Swiss skier Loic Meillard.
Austrian skiers are yet to win an event at these championships, two years after the team led the medal table of the worlds in Italy with five golds.
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