The Japan Times - Kristoffersen wins world slalom gold, Ginnis bags historic Greek silver

Kristoffersen, just 15th fastest in the first run, laid down the speediest second leg for a winning aggregate of 1min 39.50sec.

Athens-born Ginnis, who competed for the US team before switching allegiance to the country of his birth, came in second, at 0.20sec, with Italy's Alex Vinatzer claiming bronze (+0.38).

Manuel Feller had raised hopes of bagging Austria's first gold medal in the final event of the World Ski Championships by topping the first run.

But he slipped away in the second run down L'Eclipse piste in sunny, warm conditions to leave the alpine skiing powerhouses without a championship gold medal for the first time since the Crans Montana worlds in 1987.

Kristoffersen was a disappointing 15th fastest in the first leg, but took control of the second run with a lead time of 1:39.60.

It was an aggregate that was extremely tough for the rest of the field to even come close to, with a raft of racers losing crucial early tenths of seconds on a demanding course.

With the top 30 finishers running in reverse order for the second descent, the pressure is always on those who were fastest in the first.

And so it proved as Kristoffersen's time proved too much for Austrian Adrian Pertl, Swiss Ramon Zenhaeusern and local French hope Alexis Pinturault.

'Pintu', a Courchevel native, saw his hopes of a third medal on home snow after alpine combined gold and super-G bronze go up in smoke with an error-ridden run.

Austria's Marco Schwarz, another racer chasing a third medal of these worlds after silver in the alpine combined and bronze in the giant slalom, also saw his advantage slip away.

The top eight mustered themselves for a descent into a cauldron-like atmosphere of stands packed full of raucous, flag-waving fans, bass-heavy music supplemented by airhorns, trumpeters and cowbells.

First out of the start hut was France's Olympic champion Clement Noel, but he could only finish fourth, 0.41sec off Kristoffersen's time.

Austrian Fabio Gstrein lost his rhythm in the midsection to finish more than a second off the pace, Italy's Vinatzer suffering a similar fate, but just managing enough to eventually bag bronze.

Kristoffersen was left peeking through the loops of his poles as the five fastest skiers from the first run readied themselves for an assault on his time.

His teammate and reigning world champion Sebastian Foss-Solevaag was lucky not to ski out, recovering but finishing 19th (+1.26).

Linus Strasser, on a course set by his coach Bernd Brunner, left Kristoffersen squirming on the sheepskin cover of the 'leader's chair', but to no avail as the German botched his trajectory to the finish line.

Norwegian tyro Lucas Braathen, just three weeks after an emergency appendectomy, also couldn't hold onto his deficit.

Ginnis, with a 0.78sec advantage, lost four tenths up top but clung on for second place behind Kristoffersen.

It was a first-ever world championship medal for the Mediterranean country, coming shortly after Ginnis -- who learned to ski on the snowy slopes of Mount Parnassus in central Greece -- also bagged a World Cup podium in the Chamonix slalom.

All eyes then turned to Feller, but the Austrian couldn't keep his line coming into the final third, finishing equal seventh with Braathen (+0.67) to compound his country's golden woes.

M.Fujitav--JT