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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Marcel Hirscher displays class to beat Alexis Pinturault in giant slalom

France's Alexis Pinturault competes during an alpine ski, men's World Cup giant slalom, in Garmisch-Panterkirchen, Germany, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2017. (Marco Tacca / Associated Press)
Associated Press

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany – Marcel Hirscher displayed all his class to beat Alexis Pinturault and claim his 20th World Cup giant slalom victory on Sunday, avenging his narrow defeat to the French skier in Adelboden.

Trailing Pinturault by 0.09 seconds after the first run, the five-time defending overall champion charged hard in the second, clocking 1 minute, 20.10 seconds.

It was left to Pinturault to catch him but he progressively lost more time and a mistake before the end left him fourth overall, 2.05 seconds behind Hirscher, who finished 1.50 seconds ahead of Matts Olsson of Sweden.

Germany’s Stefan Luitz was third, 1.95 behind, ahead of Pinturault, Mathieu Faivre and Felix Neureuther, the last German skier to win a World Cup race in Garmisch after his slalom victory in 2010.

Hirscher, who lost by just 0.04 seconds to Pinturault in their previous giant slalom duel at Adelboden, made it back-to-back wins in the discipline at Garmisch.

The technical specialist equaled his total tally of 20 wins in slalom races, joining Ingemar Stenmark as the only skiers to have won at least 20 World Cup racess in two different disciplines. Swedish ski icon Stenmark won 46 giant slalom and 40 slalom races. \