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Skiing

France's Mathieu Faivre sweeps to victory on the French Alps

Mathieu Faivre gave a ferocious fight on the slopes of the French Alps against front runner, Marcel Hirscher of Austria, to win the World Cup giant slalom on Sunday. The French skier secured the fastest second run to beat Hirscher, the five-time defending World Cup overall winner and a Val d'Isere specialist, by 0.49 seconds.

Mathieu Faivre of France celebrates after winning slalom on 4 December 2016.
Mathieu Faivre of France celebrates after winning slalom on 4 December 2016. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
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It was a first ever World Cup win for the 24-year-old from Nice whose swashbuckling descent was cheered on wildly by the excited crowd.

Hircher, winner of six world cup giant slaloms last season, was fastest on the first leg with Faivre second before producing a killer second run.

Faivre was jubilant after the race. "It was a wonderful day," he said. "Training with the French team has really built up my confidence."

Making a slight early error, Hirscher dug deep but could only secure second place. However, it was enought to keep him ahead of Kjetil Jansrud in the overall World Cup standings after the Norwegian crashed out on the first leg.

Two more Frenchmen, Thomas Fanara and Victor Muffat-Jeandet, were the only other racers within one second of Hirscher’s time of 1 minute, 11.62.

France team leader Alexis Pinturault was sixth fastest, with 1.08 to make up on Hirscher in the afternoon second run.

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