Flawless Worley wins women's giant slalom gold

Worley, the first leg's pace setter, produced a pair of superb runs on a deteriorating course to finish 0.34 seconds ahead of American Mikaela Shiffrin, with Italy's Sofia Goggia taking the bronze medal.

Goggia's accomplishment was Italy's first podium finish in the championship, which continues with the men's giant slalom on Friday.

Having missed the 2014 Olympics with a serious knee injury which also cut short her World Cup season the same year, Worley finished top after the first leg and fended off the challengers in the second.

With warm weather making the course tougher for the top contenders in the second leg, Worley recovered from a slight glitch in the top section and pressed hard throughout to cross the finish line in pole position.

"The pressure was pretty high before the second run but I managed to go to the end and win it," a delighted Worley told the race organisers.

"I knew just a small mistake like this could be fatal and I just told myself to push harder and it was enough."

Overall World Cup leader Shiffrin was third after the first leg but leap-frogged Goggia into the silver medal position with a strong second run.

Defending champion Ana Veith finished a disappointing 22nd and Michaela Kirchgasser, who won the bronze medal in the combined event, came in 12th on a tough day for the Austrians as their less fancied compatriot Stephanie Brunner was the nation's top performer of the day with a fifth-placed finish.

(Writing by Zoran Milosavljevic)