Marco Odermatt holds on to take fine Giant Slalom win in Alta Badia from Henrik Kristoffersen

Marco Odermatt held on to win the second men’s Giant Slalom in Alta Badia to extend his lead at the top of the overall World Cup standings after a tense final run.

Odermatt finished third in Sunday’s race, which was a surprise, as he had won the other two Giant Slalom events earlier this season.

Odermatt leads Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who didn’t race either of the Giant Slaloms on Alta Badia, by 271 points after 11 races and is on course to defend his overall World Cup title.

“This was probably the biggest fight ever,” Odermatt said after the race. “I was so tired already at the start and it didn’t get better when I was skiing!

“It was a tight battle again with Henrik [Kristoffersen] but luckily I managed to win this time.”

A disappointing first run was Odermatt’s downfall yesterday, but he was on top form in Run 1 on Monday and went 1.22 seconds faster than Zan Kranjec, who set the opening time.

Kristoffersen was the Olympic champion’s closest challenger but had a deficit of 0.60 seconds, while Loic Meillard was third at 1.10 seconds adrift.

In the second run, young Belgium star Sam Maes set the early pace to beat with a combined time of 2:40.91.

River Radamus took the lead by 0.03 seconds, before he was usurped by Austria’s Raphael Haaser with 12 skiers to go.

Filip Zubcic put down a superb run to go 0.54 seconds quicker which put the pressure on the remaining nine athletes.

Alexander Schmid skied a beautiful upper section which put him at the top of the standings which Alexis Pinturault and Marco Schwarz failed to beat by just 0.03 and 0.04 seconds respectively.

The course was now cut up at the top with four to go but Kranjec battled hard and stormed into first by 0.46 seconds. It was enough to put the Slovenian onto the podium as Meillard came down the hill next and was 0.40 slower.

Kristoffersen knew he needed to put down a big run to have any chance of realistically beating Odermatt, which he did brilliantly by taking the lead from Kranjec by 0.72 seconds.

Despite Kristoffersen’s effort, Odermatt did enough after an incredibly tense second run where he nearly went down multiple times on the bumpy course to win by 0.20 seconds.

This Thursday, Britain’s Dave Ryding will be in action in the final race before Christmas in Madonna di Campiglio.

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