KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia: 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, with runaway overall World Cup leader Odermatt down in fifth after a patchy second run.
Braathen earned his second World Cup win of the season and seventh of his career.
He pulled 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.
Meillard also remains in contention with one more giant slalom to come but is 89 points adrift of Odermatt.
