Austrian Raphael Haaser is the world champion in the giant slalom discipline in alpine skiing.
On Friday in Saalbach, Austria, where the Alpine Skiing World Championships are being held, Haaser won gold with a total time of 2 minutes, 39 seconds and 71 hundredths. The other two places on the podium were taken by Swiss skiers. Second was Thomas Tumler, who was 23 hundredths behind the champion. 51 hundredths behind the Austrian Haaser was Loic Meillard.
Another Swiss skier, Marco Odermatt, finished fourth, 58 hundredths of a second behind the winner. Odermatt, an Olympic champion, was the big favorite. Switzerland was expected to dominate. But 27-year-old Haaser had a very good second run and went from fifth place after the first run to first to win gold.
It is the biggest success of Haaser's career. Austria now has two gold medals at the World Championships, the same number as Italy and the USA, while Switzerland leads with three gold medals.
"I don't know what to say, it's such an incredible day," said Haaser. He has no World Cup victories, but was second in the Super-G earlier in the World Championships.
"I thought I had a chance to finish in the top-10 today, but not on the top of the podium. I don't know where that came from."
The giant slalom race began on Thursday with qualifications. Three Kosovo skiers also competed. The best of them was Drin Kokaj, who finished 62nd. Since each country was guaranteed to have at least one skier in the main event, Kokaj also competed on Friday.
After the first run on Friday, he was 77th, or the last of those who finished the course. His time was 1 minute, 44 seconds and 35 hundredths. He was 23.25 seconds behind the fastest skier in the first run, Norwegian Timon Haugan. The penultimate was Matteo Giannin of San Marino, who was more than three seconds faster than the Kosovar skier.
Albanian skier Denni Xhepa finished 45th in the first heat with a time of 1:26.79 minutes. He qualified for the second heat, but Kokaj did not. The top 60 after the first heat earned the right to the second heat.
In the end, Xhepa was 36th overall after two runs of 2:49.45 minutes.
Kosovo skiers will now compete in the slalom competition. No better results are expected than in the giant slalom.
