ARE, Sweden— Austrian skier Marcel Hirscher overcame a first-leg deficit to edge out German skier Felix Neureuther and win a World Cup slalom race on Sunday for his 26th career victory.

Hirscher trailed Neureuther by .25 seconds after the morning’s first run but beat him by .10. Russian Alexander Khoroshilov finished .15 behind for a career-best third place.

“For sure it was a bit of a lucky moment, because you can never say I have been skiing better than Felix or that he made more mistakes than me,” Hirscher said. “It was that close. I’m lucky to be in the first position. Congrats to Alexander for his first podium.”

Hirscher, who beat the American skier Ted Ligety by 1.22 seconds to win Friday’s giant slalom, is one of only five Austrian men to have won 25 career races and moves level with Franz Klammer.

“I think it was the perfect weekend,” the 25-year-old Hirscher said. “Perfect conditions, minus-10 degrees (Celsius), perfect preparation of the slopes.”

Ligety was third after the first run but lost control of his skis midway down the second after taking a turn too wide and failed to finish.

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So did Olympic champion Mario Matt of Austria, fourth quickest in the morning.

Hirscher now has a podium finish in all five races he has competed in so far this season.

He won the season-opening giant slalom at Soelden, Austria; finished second in slalom at Levi, Finland, and third in GS at Beaver Creek, Colorado.

“I’m tired at the moment. The past three weeks have been pretty hard for all of us, with a lot of traveling,” Hirscher said. “It is not easy at the beginning of the season until Christmas.”

His 26 wins put him three behind another Austrian great, Stephan Eberharter, whom Hirscher will be confident of catching this season. He will then be able to set his sights on veteran Benjamin Raich (36) next season. Hermann Maier remains way ahead, though, with 54 World Cup wins.

Neureuther was eyeing a 10th World Cup win, and eighth in slalom, but had to settle for his second podium of the season after again finishing behind Hirscher at Levi.

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Khoroshilov had never finished higher than eighth and it was only his sixth top-10 finish.

“I skied two perfect runs,” he said. “It’s also thanks to the guys who prepared the slopes.”

Ligety, meanwhile, must wait a little longer before moving up on the all-time list of giant slalom winners. He is level in second place on 23 wins with Switzerland’s Michael von Gruenigen. Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark leads with 46.

Pushing hard to make up time, Ligety’s skis bumped off the rock-hard Olympia course and he could not regain control. He had four metal plates inserted into his left wrist after a training accident nearly three weeks ago.

The 36-year-old Raich also failed to finish his second run.


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