Ligety wins World Cup GS title with race to spare

Ted Ligety clinched the World Cup giant slalom title at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, Saturday by winning his fifth race of the season It’s the American skier’s fourth discipline title after also winning in 2008 and 2010-11. He also successfully defended his GS title at the world championships last month. Ligety held on to his first-run lead to win Saturday’s race in 2 minutes, 35.43 seconds. With one GS race still to go, the victory earned Ligety an insurmountable 125-point lead over Austria’s Marcel Hirscher, who was 0.45 behind in second. Alexis Pinturault of France came third, 0.77 behind. In the overall standings, Hirscher extended his lead to 69 points over Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal, who finished sixth. The last GS of the season takes place next Saturday. – AP