Svindal on the brink

The in-form, 24-year-old Norwegian, winner of both the super-G and downhill here, was just 0.01 seconds behind first-leg leader Massimiliano Blardone of Italy.

Swiss Didier Cuche, who still has a mathematical chance of winning the overall title, was well placed, 0.68 seconds back in fourth place. Frenchman Joel Chenal was in third place.

Austrian Raich, who led Svindal by just three points in both the overall and giant slalom standings going into the race, appeared to be skiing smoothly until a costly error on the lower section of the Silvano Beltrametti put him out.

"I hit a bump and lost control," a downbeat Raich told reporters. "The course was icy and this can happen when you are taking risks. It's a big setback but I will keep fighting for the overall globe."

Svindal, the world champion in the discipline, had no such problems, carving down the course confidently to put himself in prime position for the second leg at 1130 GMT.

"I'm very happy with that, the leaderboard speaks for itself," Svindal said.

Should Svindal win the giant slalom, Raich would go into Sunday's season-ending slalom 97 points behind and knowing that only victory would give him any chance of retaining his overall World Cup title.

Svindal, who won two golds at the world championships in Are, Sweden, last month, is bidding to join Norwegian greats Lasse Kjus and Kjetil Andre Aamodt who won three overall World Cup titles between them in the 1990s.