Austrian skier Haaser storms to world giant slalom gold
Austria's Raphael Haaser has kick-started a home party as he stormed to gold in the men's giant slalom at the Alpine Skiing World Championships after a superb second run.
Switzerland's domination of the championships had been expected to continue on Friday with world and Olympic champion Marco Odermatt the pre-race favourite.
But after the opening run raced in poor visibility, the 27-year-old Haaser jumped from fifth to the top of the leaderboard with a rip-roaring second descent.
It was the biggest win of his career and delivered Austria's second gold medal of the championships on home snow and the first in the men's events.
"It's just such an unbelievable day. Really happy with this race," said Haaser, whose best result in a World Cup giant slalom is seventh.
"I think I was capable to ski in the top 10 permanently, but stepping on top of the podium, didn't expect that."
When Haaser crossed the line for a combined time of 2min 39.71sec, there were still four more racers to come, including Odermatt and surprise first-run leader Timon Haugan of Norway.
But Odermatt made too many mistakes as his chance of adding to his super-G gold disappeared and he finished fourth.
When Haugan lost time in his second attempt, Haaser could start celebrating his first world title, having finished second behind Odermatt in the super-G.
Swiss Thomas Tumler finished 0.23 seconds behind in second place with teammate Loic Meillard in third place.
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