Alpine skiing-Swiss Meillard wins giant slalom under Schladming lights
SCHLADMING, Austria, Jan 27 : Switzerland's Loic Meillard carved to victory in a floodlit World Cup giant slalom race on Tuesday as his illustrious teammate Marco Odermatt finished just off the podium.
Meillard trailed first-run leader Lucas Pinheiro Braathen by 0.06 seconds but turned it around with a brilliant second run on the glistening icy slope in the Austrian resort.
Pinheiro Braathen was the last man down but lost time on some of the rutted turns and finished second, 0.73 seconds back.
French youngster Alban Elezi Cannaferina celebrated his first World Cup podium in stunning fashion after clocking the quickest second run to finish 0.90 slower overall.
Odermatt, the runaway overall World Cup leader and Olympic giant slalom champion, made up three places in his second run but had to settle for fourth place.
Meillard's second GS win of the season earned him 100 points and lifted him to third in the giant slalom standings, behind Pinheiro Braathen and Odermatt who has a 103-point advantage. Odermatt leads the overall standings by a massive 587 points.
Three years ago on the same slope, Meillard posted his first World Cup giant slalom win and he showed superb technical skills again as he marked himself out as a serious gold medal contender for the Milano Cortina Olympics which start next week.
"It's always a slope that I like and I have good memories here and to win again here it's amazing," he said.
"I just tried to push all the way, I had a few mistakes but just tried not to think too much and it paid off. The form is getting better and better."
Norway-born Brazilian Pinheiro Braathen has been a model of consistency in giant slalom and claimed his third successive runner-up spot in the discipline. He will try to go one place better in Wednesday's Schladming slalom.
