Marcel Hirscher leads Austria to Victory

By Daily News Editor
Published: December 13, 2009

 

VAL D'ISERE, France – Marcel Hirscher led Austria to a clean sweep of the three World Cup disciplines raced here after destroying the field to claim victory in the giant slalom on Sunday.

Hirscher's maiden win on the World Cup circuit followed that of teammates Benjamin Raich and Michael Walchhofer in the super-combined and super-G also held on the Face de Bellevarde piste on Friday and Saturday respectively.

The performance by the Austrian team dispelled worries that it might suffer another nightmare weekend courtesy of their Carlo Janka-led Swiss rivals, who failed even to make a podium here.

Canada's Robbie Dixon placed 26th in a time of 2:22.59, 40.75s back of the winner.

The 20-year-old Hirscher, who was second in the super-combined behind Raich, posted the fastest run in the first leg and then completed the job with a fine display of attacking skiing on the second run down the testing course.

Hirscher timed a total of 2 minutes 16.28 seconds, a massive 0.77s ahead of Italian Massimiliano Blardone, with Raich a further 0.55s adrift.

Raich's third-placed finish saw him leap-frog Janka into top spot of the World Cup overall standings.

The first leg of the giant slalom, in which skiers have to pass through a series of 50 gates not as close to each other as the slalom but not as displaced as the Super-G, saw Janka continue his rotten form by again crashing out.

Janka span nastily after clipping a gate about a third of the way down the course in bright sunshine that left him nursing a gash on his right cheek.

The 23-year-old Swiss racer, who notched up a hat-trick of wins in Beaver Creek last weekend, also failed to finish the super-combined and super-G here.

Janko's team-mates Didier Cuche, reigning World Cup giant slalom champion, and Didier Defago did not rate any better, the former not even starting because of an injury and the latter also crashing out.

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