Second gold for Svindal

Svindal, who won Sunday's downhill, came into the Championships as overall World Cup leader and has continued the legacy laid down by compatriots and prolific gold medal winners Lasse Kjus and Kjetil Andre Aamodt.

The 24-year-old was fourth after the first leg but produced a blistering second run to win by nearly half a second.

Albrecht, who surprised the favourites to win the super-combined last week, had a 23 hundreths advantage over Svindal after setting the quickest time on the first leg but had to settle for silver, comfortably ahead of veteran team-mate Cuche.

The 32-year-old climbed from seventh to claim his first ever World Championship medal after nerves got the better of Francois Bourque, who missed the fourth gate, combined bronze medalist Marc Berthod and Alberto Schieppati.

American star Bode Miller was well placed in sixth after the first run but produced a scrappy second run on a course his coach set and finished only 15th with compatriot Ted Ligety missing the medals by a mere seven hundreths.

Olympic giant slalom champion Benjamin Raich failed to complete his first run after skiing out.

A miserable day for the Austrians was complete as Christoph Gruber and Hannes Reichelt also failed to complete the first run while defending champion Hermann Maier was only 21st.

"Having won a medal here took some of the pressure away and enabled me to go into this quite relaxed," said Svindal, who is on the way to emulating Norwegian Stein Eriksen who won three golds at the world championships in this Swedish resort in 1954.

"The first gold meant a lot but this one means just as much if not more because the giant slalom is my discipline, the one in which I really want to shine," he said.

Cuche missed a downhill medal here by four hundredths of a second and a super-G podium place by one hundredth of a second but the stopwatch finally worked in his favour.

"This is more than about emotions. I can't control my feelings," he said.

"I didn't really believe I could win a medal in this but after the first run, I realised I had nothing to lose.

"It's a dream come true, especially after being so close in the downhill and super-G."

The Swiss team have now won five medals after failing to get on the podium in Bormio in 2005.