Hirscher wins giant slalom for 20th World Cup gold
Joins legendary Ingemar Stenmark in '20-20' club
Austria's Marcel Hirscher displayed all his class to beat Alexis Pinturault and claim his 20th World Cup giant slalom victory on Sunday in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, avenging his narrow defeat to the French skier in Adelboden.
The technical specialist equalled his total tally of 20 wins in slalom races, joining Ingemar Stenmark as the only skiers to have won at least 20 World Cup races in two different disciplines. Swedish ski icon Stenmark won 46 giant slalom and 40 slalom races.
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.
Canada's Trevor Philip, Phil Brown and Erik Read didn't qualify for the second run, while Dustin Cook didn't finish his first.
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.
Neither Hirscher nor Pinturault has won a major title in giant slalom but that looks likely to change at the world championships in Switzerland at St. Moritz. The giant slalom race is Feb. 17.
Hirscher now has two wins in the discipline this season, and was runner-up to Pinturault on each of the French skier's three victories. The Austrian stretched his lead in the season-long GS standings to 94 points with two races worth a maximum 200 points left.
The finals week race is scheduled for March 18 at Aspen, Colorado. Hirscher leads Henrik Kristoffersen by 432 points in the overall standings. The Norwegian was seventh in Garmisch. Pinturault trails by 497 overall.