He was made to work extremely hard for the world title after a difficult opening run saw him finishing last in the downhill standings with a time of 1min 46.17sec.

The 25-year-old is leader of the FIS World Cup standings and was able to replicate his impressive form in that competition during the slalom run, as he flew down the course in a time of 49.93 sec to set a combined target of 2:36.10 for the remaining competitors. 

It proved enough to prevent Kjetil Jansrud from regaining the lead he had held after the downhill in the morning, as the Norwegian was unable to maintain his 3.35sec advantage over Hirscher in the second discipline.

Jansrud's advantage was wiped out by the Austrian's slalom expertise as he finished 0.19 seconds off the gold medal position, with the top nine skiers at the close of the combined only separated by 0.89.

Kjetil Jansrud held the lead after the downhill but was forced to settle for silver ©Agence Zoom/Getty Images



The home crowd had something to cheer for as the bronze medal was taken by American Ted Ligety as, similarly to Hirscher, he came from the back of the pack in the downhill event to secure a medal with an excellent slalom.

Ligety, who had won the combined event at the 2013 World Championships in Schladming, Austria, finished just 0.80 ahead of Austrian Romed Baumann's time of 2:36.40, to seal another place on the podium at the event.

Fans in Colorado will be treated to the women's combined event tomorrow with home favourite Lindsey Vonn back in action against downhill champion Tina Maze of Slovenia and super-G champion Anna Fenninger of Austria.

The FIS Alpine Skiing World Championships is due to continue until next Sunday (February 15).

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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