Kranjec profits from Hirscher errors to win giant slalom in Saalbach

Slovenian skier Zan Kranjec took advantage of a rare off day for Marcel Hirscher to claim his first World Cup win in the giant slalom at Saalbach on Wednesday. Hirscher, who was fifth after the first run, made three big errors on his second run and failed to finish among the first three, ending sixth. It ended a run of 18 consecutive podiums in the giant for the Austrian who has won five crystal globes in the discipline. "Either I have forgotten how to ski in the last two days or there is another problem," said Hirscher. "You can see how quickly you can go from hero to zero. I skied like I did at Alta Badia. There I told myself that nothing could touch me. "And today at the halfway point, I told myself that if I arrived at the finish that would be a great performance. With sixth I managed to limit the damage." Hirscher had begun the season with four wins from five events and still leads the overall and discipline standings. He is 19 points ahead of Kjetil Jansrud in the giant slalom and 179 ahead of Max Franz in the overall. The 26-year-old Kranjec, whose only previous podium came in last year's giant slalom in Alta Badia, was fourth after the first run but produced a devastating second run to finish 19 hundredths of a second ahead of the Swiss Loic Meillard. "I have been skiing very well since the start of the winter," Kranjec told Eurosport. "I was at the limit on the second run but the key was to attack. The two runs were very long so to keep it going, it was vital to be very well prepared physically." Frenchman Mathieu Faivre took third for his sixth career podium. The slalom takes place in Saalbach on Thursday, an event rearranged from a cancelled meeting at Solden at the start of the season.