Marco Odermatt set to win first overall World Cup title after second podium in Kranjska Gora

Giant slalom Olympic champion Marco Odermatt is all but certain of his first overall World Cup title after he finished third at the Kranjska Gora giant slalom on Sunday 13 March.

The Swiss alpine skiing sensation clocked the fastest first run on Sunday morning but a couple of mistakes on Run 2 left him in third place behind the race winner Henrik Kristoffersen and second-placed Steffan Brennsteiner.

Incredibly, it was a sixth podium (including four wins) in six World Cup GS races this season for Odermatt, who now sits 329 points clear of Aleksander Aamodt Kilde on the overall standings.

Kilde opted to skip the Slovenian stop and would need to win all the remaining four races at the World Cup Finals in Courchevel-Meribel, France from 16-20 March, an almost impossible ask given that the Norwegian is not expected to compete in the slalom event.

The final men's GS of the season will take place on Saturday 19 March.

Odermatt wins first Giant Slalom tour Crystal Globe

Odematt will have to clear some space in his trophy cabinet after he claimed the GS tour title yesterday with a tied second-place finish in Saturday's GS, and skied supremely in the first run on Sunday with the pressure off.

A couple of small mistakes on his second run cost him the win, but with the overall title as good as won, he can now go and enjoy the final few days of racing in France.

Odermatt is a ski prodigy who won six titles at the 2018 junior worlds and now at at just 24 years of age is GS Olympic champion with 25 World Cup podiums, 10 titles, 10 runners-up finishes and five third-place podiums.

He almost nailed-on to become the first Swiss racer to win the overall title in 12 years, since Carlo Janka did it back in 2010.

Odermatt battled with Alexis Pinturault until the final race last season, Pinturault lifting both the GS and overall globes a year ago.

This year it's a different story, and it may be the beginning of a long reign for the multi-talented Odermatt.

Henrik Kristoffersen does Kranjska Gora Giant Slalom double

Henrik Kristoffersen has some cause to celebrate too this weekend.

He followed up a pulsating Saturday giant slalom victory with another just 24 hours later.

He clocked 1:12.46 in the first run to sit third half a second behind Odermatt in first and broke out the afterburners in run two, blazing to a 1:05.67 final run.

Austria's Brennsteiner finished second +0.23 behind for his first podium of the season, while Odermatt was third +0.27 off the winning mark.

"Very good weekend for sure," smiled Kristoffersen in his post-race interview, "when we ski like this it's a pretty good day.

"For sure I like it (Kransjka Gora) but I think as long as you ski good, you're going to ski good no matter how the course set is, no matter how the hill is.

"No matter how the hill is, people can try to set you out with setting straight courses but it doesn't matter, as long as I do my thing I can I can do more than that and when I do it like this then... It's like this!

Kristoffersen jumped to third place of the overall standings with 874 points amd going into the finals he has the chance to clinch the slalom globe.