CORTINA D’AMPEZZO (Reuters) – Mathieu Faivre became the first Frenchman for more than 50 years to win giant slalom gold at the Alpine skiing world championships as team mate Alexis Pinturault skied out in his second run on Friday.
Pinturault had set a searing pace in the first leg, going 0.40 seconds quicker than his nearest rival Luca De Aliprandini of Italy, but went off early in his second run.
Faivre, who was fourth after the first run, 0.58 seconds behind Pinturault, produced a stunning second leg to put the pressure on the three skiers still to come.
He looked as surprised as everyone else when Pinturault lost control and missed gate.
Aliprandini made several mistakes but hung on to take the silver medal, 0.63 seconds behind Faivre, with Austrian Marco Schwarz in third place.
Jean-Claude Killy was the last Frenchman to win the coveted giant slalom world title in Grenoble in 1968.
(This story fixes typos in slalom in headline)
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Ken Ferris)
