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.

"I had some grip problems in the middle part, very icy, but despite everything it went very well I tried to attack and be fair at the same time, I found a good compromise it was very good ", he declared.

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.

The rest of the competitors were pushed back to more than a second, in particular the other favorites: the Slovenian Zan Kranjec was 7th at 1 sec 82, the Croatian Filip Zubcic 11th at 2 sec 12, and the Swiss Marco Odermatt left the track.

Thibaut Favrot is 12th at 2 sec 15 and Victor Muffat-Jeandet 21st at 3 sec 42.

The second round is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.

© 2021 AFP