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Ligety clinches World Cup giant slalom title
March 9, 2013 -- Updated 1641 GMT (0041 HKT)
America's Ted Ligety clinched a fourth World Cup giant slalom title with a fifth career victory at Kranjska Gora.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- America's Ted Ligety secures World Cup giant slalom title with win in Slovenia
- Fifth GS career win at Kranjska Gora secures a fourth crystal globe in the discipline
- Women's GS in Germany won by Austria's Anna Fenninger; Tina Maze finishes second
(CNN) -- Ted Ligety clinched top spot in the World Cup giant slalom (GS) standings for 2013 with a win at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia on Saturday.
The American came in first in a combined time of 2 minutes 35.43 seconds, 0.45 seconds ahead of Austria's Marcel Hirscher with Alexis Pinturault of France finishing third.
Ligety's fifth GS victory at the Slovenian resort sees him clinch a fourth crystal globe in the discipline adding to titles won in 2008, 2010 and 2011.
"This hill is awesome it has a little of everything to offer so to win here again is incredible and I'm really proud of it," Ligety said, fisalpine.com reported.
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"Securing the GS title one race in advance is a big weight off my back. I had an awesome season in giant slalom but Hirscher was constantly with me the whole season. Even when I beat him by two seconds he was still there in second and it makes it tougher going for the title. It was a head game when he was so close all along," Ligety added.
Ligety now has 620 points to Hirscher's 495 with only one race to go at Lenzerheide, Switzerland next weekend.
The win caps a remarkable season for the 28-year-old from Salt Lake City which saw him claim three gold medals (GS, super G and super combined) at the World Championships in Schladming, Austria in February.
The women's GS event in Ofterschwang, Germany was won by Austria's Anna Fenninger with overall World Cup winner Tina Maze of Slovenia finishing second. Germany's Viktoria Rebensburg was third.
Fenninger's second successive World Cup win was secured in a time of two minutes 29.30 seconds, with Maze 0.44 seconds behind.
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"I was quite surprised to see how fast I managed to ski in the second run, starting last", Fenninger said, fisalpine reported.
"The conditions weren't as good as they were obviously in the first run. I've been feeling really good in the last weeks. I skied with instinct and without too much thinking and it's working again today. I'm extremely happy about it," the 23-year-old added.
Maze, who surpassed Austrian Hermann Maier's 13-year-old record for overall World Cup points last weekend, extended her tally to 2,154 points.
The 29-year-old has also comfortably won the GS World Cup title having amassed 700 points to Fenninger's 435 with one race to go.
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