Ligety retains giant slalom title

[February 14, 2015]  BEAVER Creek, Colorado (Reuters) - Ted Ligety produced a blistering second run to overtake favored Austrian Marcel Hirscher and retain his giant slalom title at the alpine ski world championships on Friday.

Placed fifth after the morning leg, American Ligety scorched down the twisting Birds of Prey course in the afternoon to post a combined time of two minutes, 34.16 seconds, according to provisional results.

Slalom maestro Hirscher, who led Ligety by just 0.24 seconds after the opening run, stayed out in front through the first three splits before finishing second, 0.45 seconds back.

Frenchman Alexis Pinturault, the bronze medallist at last year's Sochi Olympics, took third with an overall time of 2:35.04.

(Reporting by Steve Keating; Editing by Gene Cherry)

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