Summary Maze had gone into the last event of World Cup finals with a narrow 18-point lead over Fenninger
MERIBEL (AFP) - Anna Fenninger ensured double Austrian joy on Sunday after pipping Tina Maze to defend her overall World Cup title to mirror teammate Marcel Hirscher s feat for the men s crystal globe.
While Hirscher had been guaranteed the overall title by default Saturday after closest rival Kjetil Jansrud of Norway opted out of racing the slalom, there was no such luxury for Fenninger.
Maze had gone into the last event of the World Cup finals with a narrow 18-point lead over Fenninger.
But the Austrian pulled out all the stops in bad visibility down the Roc de Fer piste to win the giant slalom in an aggregate time of 2min 26.91sec, 0.38sec ahead of teammate Eva-Maria Brem, with Maze in third at 0.46sec.
The result saw Fenninger not only leapfrog Maze to the top of the overall standings with a 22-point advantage, but also claim the smaller globe for the discipline s best performer over a thrilling season.
"It s fantastic!" beamed the 25-year-old Fenninger. "The battle is until the end, the last race.
"It was hard to stay focused on the skiing because there was so much pressure. I m happy to stand here as winner. It was a good season and I m happy about all my races."
Fenninger added of Maze: "She was great. She was fighting so hard and I ve never had such a big fight with any athlete.
"In the end she lost the overall by such a small margin. I have to congratulate her, it was a great season and she had a lot of pressure too."
Fenninger s success came hot on the heels of Hirscher, who had gone into the men s slalom 55 points adrift of Germany s Felix Neureuther.
- costly mistake -
==================
The German, however, made a costly mistake on the first leg to allow Hirscher a way in for a third slalom globe.
After finishing third in the first leg, Hirscher produced a near-faultless second run to power to victory in a combined time of 1min 33.53sec to finish atop the slalom standings on 614 points, Neureuther netting only 22pts for his 12th-placed finish to stand second, 23pts adrift.
"It was definitely a tough situation, I am really sorry for Felix as he was so close to his first globe. But you know, it s part of our sport," Hirscher said.
"I am super happy, because before the race I was in a very unusual position, normally I didn t stand a chance but the victory made it possible and I m thrilled."
Hirscher added: "There was no pressure. There is only an opportunity you have when you are in my situation and it s to try to give it 100 percent, ski as fast as you can.
"No tactics. If everything works well it s perfect and if I skied out it would have been okay as well. It s not the end of the world."
Jansrud, who picked up both downhill and super-G crystal globes earlier in the week, said his decision not to race the slalom was the correct one.
"I didn t want any fuss about the overall yesterday, Marcel still had a shot at the slalom title and I thought it would be good to let him focus on it. It just seemed fair," the Norwegian said.
"We all knew that gaining 60 points on Marcel in slalom would be an impossible task for me so I decided to not ski.
"When you don t ski you can t be on the start list so my coach pulled me off the board last night and made it official. It s all good by me."
Jansrud, 29, said his two globes had made it a "great season" for him.
"I don t feel like I am losing out on the overall, I had a good fight," he said.
"Instead of putting all my focus on not winning the overall I ll put it on being really happy with what I have achieved. It has been an amazing ride this season."
