France's Faivre leads Alta Badia giant slalom

Alta Badia (Italy) (AFP) – Mathieu Faivre led the field after the first run of Sunday's alpine skiing World Cup giant slalom at Alta Badia, a hair ahead of pre-race favourite Marco Odermatt.

Issued on: 19/12/2021 - 11:32

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Frenchman Faivre topped the times in Italy with a run of 1min 11.65sec just 0.02sec in front of Odermatt, who came into Sunday's race first in the standings for the giant slalom and the overall race for the crystal globe.

Alexis Pinterault sits second in the giant slalom standings but was ninth after the first run, 0.67sec behind his countryman Faivre.

Faivre, a 29-year-old from Nice, is a giant slalom specialist and won two gold medals at last year's world championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo, one in his favoured discipline and the other in the parallel giant slalom.

He is aiming for the third World Cup win of his career when the top 30 racers from the first run go back onto the piste on Sunday afternoon at 1330 local time (1230 GMT).