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'Fun day' for Olympic champion Braathen in giant slalom win / Photo: © AFP
'Fun day' for Olympic champion Braathen in giant slalom win
Brazil's Olympic champion Lucas Pinheiro Braathen won the World Cup giant slalom in Kranjska Gora on Saturday to close the gap on discipline leader Marco Odermatt.
The Norwegian-born Braathen, who claimed South America's first ever Winter Olympic gold medal, led after the first leg in Slovenia and delivered another solid run to beat Swiss skier Loic Meillard by 0.54 seconds.
Austria's Stefan Brennsteiner was 0.80sec back in third place and admitted that the sunny slopes were like "Brazilian weather" - something that went well with Braathen's finish area samba.
"The sun was out, spring is springing, the fans gave me amazing energy as per usual and I just felt like it today, my skiing felt like dancing so I thought I would pay a little tribute to it," said a happy Braathen after collecting his seventh World Cup win.
"What a fun day it has been. I am skiing with a lot of happiness, a lot of joy.
"The only thing I have been trying to do since the Olympics is enjoy it, while obviously trying to combine that with getting ready for some difficult last races with a lot on the line."
The 25-year-old had a 0.14 second lead over the field at the halfway stage and then sealed his win on a challenging course on the second run.
"It was really as different as it gets, it was borderline downhill the second run course," said Braathen who now has two wins, four podium places and five other top-five finishes in his 12 World Cup and Olympic races since mid-December.
"On the flat it didn't even turn for four or five consecutive gates. But this is what skiing is all about. Skiing is about showing you're fast on the straights and fast on the curvy and offset types of course and at the end of the day the guy that runs off with the globe, he's the best overall.
"I am very proud of today’s performance, I really am."
He has now pulled up to within 48 points of Odermatt in the giant slalom standings ahead of the season-ending finals in Norway at the end of the month.
Runaway overall World Cup leader Odermatt could only finish down in fifth after a patchy second run.
Meillard also remains in contention with one more giant slalom to come but is 89 points adrift of Odermatt.
S. Soares--JDB
