The Albany Gazette - Meillard leads 'perfect' Swiss sweep in Val d'Isere giant slalom

Meillard, who was fifth after the first run, finished 0.18 seconds ahead of Luca Aerni with Marco Odermatt a further 0.15sec behind in third.

"It's amazing. Fourth place would have been pretty amazing today, a good step in the right direction," said Meillard.

"But to win directly, it's simply perfect," added the 29 year-old who also led a Swiss treble in the giant slalom in Hafjell in March ahead of Odermatt and Thomas Tumler.

"This isn't my first treble but it's always magical," he added.

This was Meillard's eighth World Cup win, his fifth in giant slalom, and marks a welcome return to form for the reigning slalom world champion, who has struggled this season.

After summer training hampered by a painful back, he had managed only one top-10 since the start of the season, with ninth place in the giant slalom at Beaver Creek.

"It shows the work we've been putting in the last two weeks with the team," he said.

"We've worked on a few small (things) in the end, nothing big — but just finding the right movement again, the flow, and today it worked."

- 'Not easy' -

World No.1 Odermatt came into Val d'Isere on a run of four straight giant slalom victories and was running fourth after the first run.

He looked a long way off his best on a stuttering second run, clipping a gate with his glove, but did enough to finish with another podium.

"It was not that easy today to get into this 100 percent race focus," he said.

"But still, I skied down twice with a fight and luckily it was enough for the podium."

Odermatt will have to wait a little longer to claim his 50th World Cup win and equal Italian Alberto Tomba's tally.

Ingemar Stenmark's 86 wins is the record for men with Marcel Hirscher (67) and Hermann Maier (54) also ahead of Odermatt.

Mikaela Shiffrin holds the overall record with 104 World Cup wins.

It was a memorable day as well for Aerni who was 1.36 seconds off the pace in 13th place after the first run.

The 32-year-old had only scored one previous podium in the slalom, his preferred event, nearly eight years ago in Madonna di Campiglio.

But he used a relatively clean track to post the second-quickest time in the second run to take the provisional lead.

"I always try to ski GS in training but then I had some back problems," he said.

"I think since two years ago, it's very good with the back and I have a very good feeling on the skis."

Odermatt retains the lead in the giant slalom standings as well as the overall, with twice as many points as Austria's Stefan Brennsteiner who led after the first run only to finish fifth.

The Val d'Isere stop concludes Sunday with a slalom.

(F.Jackson--TAG)