Ligety collects first win of the season

January 29, 2010 - 0 comments

Kranjska Gora -- U.S. skier Ted Ligety won his third consecutive giant slalom at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, with a 0.34-second margin of victory Friday.

Ligety completed the two runs in 2 minutes, 22.02 seconds. Austrian Marcel Hirscher was second in 2:22.36 and Norwegian Kjetil Jansrud was third at 2:22.53.

The American was second, 0.01 second behind Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal, after the first run and said he knew he needed to go all out in the second run to collect his first World Cup title of the year.

The successful second run allowed Ligety to repeat as champion on the course where he won giant slalom's in 2008 and 2009. He goes for four in a row Sunday with the regularly scheduled GS in Kranjska Gora.
Svindal ended up fourth on the day.

The win allowed Ligety to take the World Cup giant slalom lead with 292 points. Austrian Benjamin Raich and Italian Masimilliano Blardone are tied for second at 259.

Raich, with 927 points, is the overall World Cup leader while Swiss skier Carlo Janka is second overall with 865 points. Ligety's 547 points moved into sixth overall after Friday's races.

Friday's giant slalom in Slovenia replaced a January event in Adelboden, Switzerland, which was called off because of dense fog.