Hirscher leads slalom after Bormio first leg

Austria's Marcel Hirscher edged towards his third consecutive slalom victory on Italian soil after dominating the first leg at the Bormio World Cup event on Monday. In an event rescheduled from Zagreb, Hirscher clocked 1min 00.25sec for the slalom run to take the provisional lead ahead of Germany's Felix Neureuther, at just 0.01sec and Sweden's Mattias Hargin, third in 1:00.38. Fellow Austrian Mario Matt had been bidding for a 15th World Cup slalom win that would have seen him surpass compatriot Benni Raich and equal Croatian Ivica Kostelic in third place on the all-time men's World Cup slalom victory list. Matt, however, could only finish ninth in a time of 1:01.20. If he wins after the second run, Hirscher would become the fourth male skier to win three consecutive World Cup slaloms in Italy after Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden, Finn Christian Jagge of Norway and Kostelic. Kostelic was the last man to achieve the feat, winning three in a row from December 2002 to December 2003. Source: AFP