YANQING, China (Reuters) – Favourite Marco Odermatt of Switzerland held a four hundredths of a second lead over Austria’s Stefan Brennsteiner after the top 30 skiers had completed the first run of the men’s giant slalom in driving now on Sunday.
In tough conditions, overall World Cup and giant slalom leader Odermatt recovered from an error midway through his run to get into pole position for the second run at 13:45 local (05:45 GMT).
France’s Mathieu Faivre was also within breathing distance of Odermatt, finishing just 0.08 behind the Swiss all-rounder with Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen and another Frenchman Thibaut Favrot also in close contention.
While visibility looked poor, the early skiers agreed with the decision to go ahead with the race in the snow.
“Definitely, the light is more than skiable, it just makes it difficult. I like it,” said Kristoffersen, who was first out of the start hut.
“The snow is a little uneven so it is quite aggressive in spots…a little slick…I think it was difficult for everyone,” he added.
Germany’s Alexander Schmid was one of nine skiers in the top 30 who failed to finish their run.
(Reporting by Simon Evans, additional reporting by Simon Jennings and Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
