Ted Ligety gets giant slalom world title

By John Bagratuni Feb 18, 2011, 17:33 GMT

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany - Ted Ligety of the United States lived up to his top billing when he claimed the giant slalom skiing world championship title on Friday.

Ligety, 26, took his second big career title, following Olympic super-combined gold in 2006, ahead of Frenchman Cyprien Richard and rising Austrian Philipp Schoerghofer as first-run leader Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway faded to fourth.

Ligety won the first three races of the season to top the giant slalom standings. He got bronze in the discipline at the 2009 worlds before topping the podium on Friday from fourth place after the first run.

'It is tough coming into a big championship being the big favourite. To win it as favourite is very gratifying,' said Ligety.

'I knew I was in touch and I knew I could make the podium or win. I took risks and it worked out. The first run was more open, the second tighter and turnier. I made it through with little mistakes.'

Ligety's gold was the first title for the US at the championships, following silvers for Lindsey Vonn in the downhill and Julia Mancuso in the super-g. Austria have three titles from eight events and are the only nation with more than one gold.

Ligety had an almost flawless second run to win with an aggregate 2 minutes 10.56 seconds on the demanding Kandahar course.

Richard moved from seventh to silver just eight hundredths behind Ligety in 2:10.64, two days after getting gold for France in the team event. Philipp Schoerghofer salvaged some pride for the depleted Austrian team by taking bronze, to go with team silver, in 2:10.99.

'I wanted to give it all I had. I wanted to get on the podium badly. Maybe I will think about the eight hundredth tomorrow, but I am very happy with silver,' said Richard.

Schoerghofer was Austria's only serious contender after medal hopes Benjamin Raich, Marcel Hirscher and Hannes Reichelt injured themselves over the past two weeks.

'I was very nervous yesterday and today. I am overjoyed with bronze. The top three is all that counts at world championships and Olympics,' he said. 'It is extremely bitter with all the injuries.'

The giant slalom was the Garmisch-Partenkirchen race in which the gold medallist had won a World Cup race this season in the discipline.

Ligety won the first three races, Richard shared first place with Svindal in the next and Schoerghofer got his first career win in the last race before the worlds on February 6.

'It is always tough to win, but in the end the right ones win. The technically good skiers were up front,' said Schoerghofer.

But Ligety also warned that 'the difference between an awesome and a horrible run is small.'

Svindal found out about this as he missed the podium by six hundredths in fourth place. Overall World Cup leader Ivica Kostelic dropped from third to 13th as the piste deteriorated with the top 30 skiers competing in reverse order of their first-run placing.

The 2009 world and 2010 Olympic giant slalom champ Carlo Janka of Switzerland was seventh while former champion Bode Miller of the US had the best second run to move from 27th to 12th.

Friday's race featuring 98 starters was shortened by nine gates because to avoid foggy conditions at the originally planned start. These conditions had delayed the start of Thursday's women's race by two hours.

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