Cortina d'Ampezzo (Italy) (AFP)
Alexis Pinturault, the favorite, dominated the first round of the giant slalom of the Alpine Skiing Worlds in Cortina d'Ampezzo (Italy) on Friday, where Mathieu Faivre remains well placed for the podium.
On a course designed by his trainer Fabien Munier, Alexis Pinturault completed an impressive round, greeted by the followers in the finish area bathed in sunshine, ideally placing him to win a first major title in his favorite discipline.
Only three skiers, rather outsiders who left later than him, limited the damage: the Italian Luca de Aliprandini is 2nd at 40/100, the German Alexander Schmid is 3rd at 54/100 and the recent parallel world champion French Mathieu Faivre is 4th at 58/100 after passing the top 30.
The rest of the competitors were pushed back to more than a second, in particular the other favorites: the Slovenian Zan Kranjec is at 1 sec 72, the Croatian Filip Zubcic at 2 sec 12, and the Swiss Marco Odermatt is off the track.
The second round is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
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