Marcel Hirscher earns fourth consecutive giant slalom victory

Overall leader Marcel Hirscher dominated a giant slalom for his fourth straight World Cup victory in the discipline Sunday.

Hirscher, the first Austrian to achieve the feat, navigated the Kandahar course in 2 minutes, 43.23 seconds, beating Germany’s Felix Neureuther by a huge 3.28 seconds and 37-year-compatriot Benjamin Raich by 3.44.

Hirscher led Raich by 1.99 after a blistering first run.

Three-time world champion Ted Ligety of the United States was fourth, 3.56 back, recovering from eighth in the first run by taking the provisional lead.

Alexis Pinturault of France was fifth, 3.68 back, followed by Switzerland’s Carlo Janka and Italy’s Roberto Nani. Hirscher, who turns 26 on Monday, stretched his overall standings lead to 188 points over Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud, who finished 5.13 off the pace in 15th.

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Anna Fenninger of Austria kept up the pressure on overall leader Tina Maze with victory in the women’s Alpine combined World Cup race in fog-hit Bansko, Bulgaria.

Fenninger, the overall No. 2, further narrowed the gap with Maze, winning both legs of the race for a combined time of 2 minutes, 5.06 seconds.

Racing back-to-back with Maze in the second slalom run, Fenninger nudged the Slovenian by 0.39 seconds on the day — and trimmed the gap in the World Cup overall standings from 84 to 64 points.

Kathrin Zettel of Austria finished third, 1.06 seconds behind the leader.

Lindsey Vonn skipped the second leg after getting off to a slow start and finishing 2.57 seconds back in 24th, prompting the American to complain to race officials about the foggy conditions.

“I didn’t want to risk anything in the super combined,” Vonn said.“I’ve had too many injuries so I skied very conservatively. But, yeah, I made it to the finish.”