France's Jean-Baptiste Grange produced a blistering second slalom run on Sunday, upsetting pre-race favourite Marcel Hirscher to claim his second career world title in Beaver Creek.
Grange stole the surprise victory from World Cup overall leader Hirscher, who failed to finish after missing a gate.
The 2011 world slalom champion Grange clocked an aggregate time of one minute 57.47sec over the two runs to spoil Hirscher's bid for a second gold of the biennial championships.
Fritz Dopfer finished 0.35sec back for the silver while his German compatriot and World Cup slalom leader Felix Neureuther took the bronze with a time of 1:58.02.
World Cup overall points leader Hirscher had the best time until the last third of his run when he skied off course handing the win to Grange, who claimed the third world championship medal of his career.
Skiing first out of the gate in the morning session, Hirscher earned himself a 0.28sec lead over Russian Alexander Khoroshilov. Since 2002, the leader after the first run has always won the slalom at the World Championships and Olympic Games.
The weather changed dramatically in the hours between the first and second legs of the slalom. A heavy snowfall in the afternoon transformed the morning's icy slope into a snow covered piste with limited visibility.
Organizers also changed the layout by moving some of the gates to make the course straighter after 43 ski racers didn't finish the first run.
Share
