Austrian Hirscher wins giant slalom race

Austrian Marcel Hirscher edged defending champion Ted Ligety of the United States to win his fourth career Alpine Ski Men's World Cup giant slalom race on Sunday. Hirscher won with a combined two-run time of 2mins 38.45 secs to edge Ligety by .16 of a second with Germany's Fritz Dopfer third with a 2:39.07 total time. Ligety had the best time in the opening run, defying light fog and falling snow in a run of 1:18.53 to lead Hirscher by 0.21. But in the second run, Hirscher topped the speed charts with a run of 1:19.71 while Ligety was only fourth-best in the final run at 1:20.08. Ligety was on pace for the victory at the first interval but a bobble near the bottom gave the triumph to the 22-year-old Austrian. Ligety, who has won three of the past four overall giant slalom World Cup season titles, won the season-opening giant slalom race at Soelden, Austria, in October and leads the giant slalom standings by 180-140 over Hirscher. Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal finished ninth to stretch his lead on Swiss Didier Cuche, who was 12th on Sunday, in the overall points chase to 294-260 with Swiss Beat Feuz in third another 14 points adrift.