Austria's Marcel Hirscher powered  to a stunning victory in Sunday's World Cup slalom in Kitzbuhel, Austria.

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Austria's Marcel Hirscher won Sunday's World Cup slalom at Kitzbuhel

Arnold Schwarzenegger was in the stands as Hirscher claimed victory in front of his home fans

Hirscher's fourth win of the season puts him 114 points clear at the top of the standings

Croatia's Ivica Kostelic guaranteed record fourth successive victory in the World Cup combined event

Arnold Schwarzenegger knows a thing or two about being an all-action hero – but it was Austria’s Marcel Hirscher who terminated his rivals’ hopes at Kitzbuhel.

In front of the Terminator star, the current World Cup leader produced an astonishing second run at Sunday’s World Cup slalom to clinch victory after finishing third in the opening leg.

The home favorite raced home in 53.51 seconds, giving him a winning total of 1min 44.34 seconds to see off Germany’s Felix Neureuther and Croatia’s Ivica Kostelic.

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“I tried my best. It was pretty difficult,” Hirscher told reporters. “I knew that if I wanted to win, I definitely had to beat Felix.”

Over 30,000 fans including Schwarznegger had packed into the stands with the Austrian-born former California governor enjoying Hirscher’s victory.

It was Hirscher’s fourth slalom triumph of the season and kept him top of the World Cup standings on 1,035 points, 114 points ahead of Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal on 921.

Croatia’s Kostelic, who took third, is now guaranteed a record fourth successive victory in the men’s World Cup combined event, which takes into account the total of the downhill and slalom times.

Kostelic, the overall World Cup winner in 2001, underwent an operation on his troublesome right knee in February 2012 and has been forced to miss large parts of his training.

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But the 33-year-old produced an impressive second run Sunday to win the combined event, which will be replaced next season by a super-combined, comprising a shortened downhill and one slalom run

“The course was a little bit different. We had three very significant rolls, man-made I think with snow, and it was also very icy,” Kostelic told reporters, before adding that he thought it was a “big mistake” to scrap the classic combined event.

“My stance is that in a year or two I’ll be gone from skiing and those who oppose it also.

“The classical combined is already an old man, introduced in 1931, and to destroy this is unbelievable to me.

“You cannot build tradition. It’s the oldest discipline.

“You gain nothing from one more hybrid race (the super-combined), but you lose a lot more if the classic combined in Kitzbuhel is destroyed.”

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Meanwhile, in the women’s section, Slovenia’s Tina Maze won her seventh World Cup race of the season in front of her home fans in Maribor.

The 29-year-old recorded hier 18th career World Cup victory after coming home in timed 1min 33.68sec over the two legs, 00.86secs quicker than Frida Hansdotter of Sweden while Austrian Kathrin Zettel was third, 1.13sec adrift.

Maze, who finished second behind U.S. star Lindsey Vonn in Saturday’s giant slalom, has picked up 17 podium finishes in 25 races.

“It was wonderful to cross the line in front of my compatriots,” Maze told reporters.

“I wanted to deliver their victory for Slovenia, but Schladming (the world championships), will host the most important races of the season.”

Maze now looks set to win the overall competition with the magic number of 2000 points within her grasp after moving on to 1664 for the season.

Only Austrian legend Hermann Maier has ever broken through the 2000 point barrier in the history of World Cup skiing.