Norway's Kjetil Jansrud won Monday's inaugural men's parallel giant slalom in the alpine skiing World Cup at Alta Badia, denying compatriot Aksel Lund Svindal a sixth victory of the season.

Jansrud and Svindal advanced from an initial 32-man field to set up an all-Norwegian showdown at the Italian resort, with Jansrud earning his first victory since March.

"I've tried to beat him all year. I've been close a few times, but never really gotten there, but it's a little absurd to finally beat him now in a new parallel discipline," Jansrud told fis-ski.com.

Sweden's Andre Myhrer clinched a first podium finish in almost two years after edging out Germany's Dominik Schwaiger for third place.

However, defending four-time overall champion Marcel Hirscher suffered an early elimination after missing a gate on his opening run.

Henrik Kristoffersen, Felix Neureuther and Ted Ligety also failed to advance from the first knockout round, which featured two timed runs, before the competition adopted a one-run winner-takes-all format.

Svindal reclaimed the overall lead from Hirscher, just a day after the Austrian became the first skier to win the challenging Alta Badia giant slalom three years in a row.

Having missed the entire 2015 World Cup season with a ruptured Achilles, Svindal goes into Tuesday's slalom at Madonna di Campiglio with a 57-point lead over Hirscher with Jansrud third, 193 points behind his countryman.
Source: AFP