Giant slalom specialist Ted Ligety took the early bragging rights as the men’s FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup got underway in Solden on Sunday.
The American produced two superb runs to claim his fourth victory at the Austrian resort the first man to achieve the feat and the 24th giant slalom success of his illustrious career.
Ligety found crucial time in the final two sectors of his second run to take victory by 0.15 seconds from Thomas Fanara, while defending overall champion Marcel Hirscher had to settle for third.
A superb start to the season for Ligety began on a supreme first run, the 31-year-old producing a near faultless display to stop the clock after one minute and 12.30 seconds, giving him a 0.17secs advantage over Hirscher.
Fanara had also impressed early on but found himself 0.33secs behind in third heading into the decisive run, but he was able to find time while others lost it.
Austrian Roland Leitinger made early progress on the second run and stayed in top spot until Alexis Pinturault went faster late on, signalling the start of the battle for victory.
Roberto Nani and then Fanara were quickly able to go ahead of the Frenchman and, when Hirscher was unable to match the latter’s time, a podium finish was guaranteed.
Ligety’s final run began well as he moved nearly a second ahead at the top of the course but that fell away and, going into the final two sectors, he was level with Fanara.
But such is the American’s quality he was able to find a crucial tenth to get ahead and claim the victory and a 50th World Cup podium.
