Alpine skiing: Ligety finally wins Adelboden

By Manuele Lang

ADELBODEN, Switzerland (Reuters) - A last-gasp mistake by arch-rival Marcel Hirscher handed American Ted Ligety his first victory in the Adelboden classic giant slalom on Saturday.

Ligety clinched his 15th top spot in the discipline in a combined time of two minutes 28.67 seconds.

The world champion owed his fourth win of the winter to World Cup holder Hirscher.

Austrian Hirscher, who had been on the podium of the last nine giant slaloms he entered, was leading Ligety by more than a second when he missed a gate close to the finish line and had to settle for 16th place.

Ligety beat Germans Fritz Dopfer, 1.15 seconds adrift, and in-form Felix Neureuther, who finished 0.09 behind his team mate.

With 15 giant slalom wins, Ligety became the third most successful skier in the discipline, level with Italy's Alberto Tomba and behind Swede Ingemar Stenmark and Swiss Michael von Gruenigen.

"I absolutely wanted to win this because it was a real chance to seize," said Hirscher after he was to explain why he did not ski more conservatively.

"Today I stretched my limits but it's good to see you can beat Ligety. I took too many risks and I paid the full price."