Alpine skiing: Hirscher clinches seventh World Cup title

[March 05, 2018]    (Reuters) - Double Olympic champion Marcel Hirscher lifted his seventh consecutive overall Alpine skiing World Cup crown when he completed a clean sweep of the events at Kranjska Gora with victory in the slalom on Sunday.

Marcel Hirscher of Austria celebrates with his father Ferdinand Hirscher and fans after the prize giving ceremony. REUTERS/Borut Zivulovic

The Austrian ace, who won Olympic gold medals in the giant slalom and combined events at the Pyeongchang Winter Games last month, took the overall and slalom titles after clinching a fifth giant slalom crystal globe on Saturday.

With 17 crystal globes to his name, the irrepressible Hirscher is two behind Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark's tally.

Hirscher clocked one minute 49.22 seconds over the two runs in Sunday's race, 1.22 seconds faster than Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen, with Swiss Ramon Zenhaeusern 1.61 behind in third.

Hirscher tops the slalom standings with 874 points, Kristoffersen has 710 and Swede Andre Myhrer, 24th in Sunday’s race, is third with 460.

The Austrian has 1,494 points in the overall standings and cannot be caught by Kristoffersen, who has 1,205 with two events left at Kvitfjell in Norway next weekend.

Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal is a distant third on 716 after not participating at Kranjska Gora.

(Reporting by Rex Gowar; Editing by Toby Davis)

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