Fanara leads French clean sweep in St Moritz

Omnisports 11:31 - 19 March 2016

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Victory for Thomas Fanara in the giant slalom led a FIS World Cup clean sweep for France in St Moritz, as champion Marcel Hirscher settled for fifth.

Thomas Fanara claimed his maiden FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup win as he led a French one-two-three in the final giant slalom meet of the season in St Moritz on Saturday.

Fanara clung on to the top spot on the podium in Switzerland as compatriots Alexis Pinturault and Mathieu Faivre both lost crucial time in the final sector on the 50-gate course.

The 34-year-old made up over half a second in his second run of the day to claim the win, his overall time of two minutes 14.92 seconds giving him the victory by a mere 0.02secs from Pinturault.

Pinturault was denied his fifth win of the World Cup in the closing metres, the Frenchman unable to find the fraction of a second he needed to give him the most victories in giant slalom this season.

As a result he has to share that honour with overall and giant slalom champion Marcel Hirshcer (+0.92secs) - who had to settle for fifth place behind fellow Austrian Philipp Schoerghofer (+0.76secs).

Faivre claimed the final podium place ahead of the Austrian duo thanks to his dominant opening run, and the win looked his until he lost three tenths in the final sector.