Janka wins World alpine skiing title

AFP - Switzerland's Carlo Janka won the men's giant slalom on Friday to be crowned the 2010 overall World Cup champion as Italy's Davide Simoncelli finished the race second.

Austria's Philipp Schoerghofer took joint third here with Ted Ligety of the United States which gave the American the overall giant slalom Crystal Globe for the season.

Having set the fastest time in the morning's first run, the 23-year-old Janka was again supreme in the afternoon's second run with a winning time of 2mins 20.87sec with Simoncelli second at 0.31sec.

Schoerghofer and Ligety both crossed the line at 0.57sec back.

Even with 100 points up for grabs in Saturday's slalom event, 2010 World Cup champion Janka can not be caught by his rivals.

As the Olympic and world giant slalom champion, Janka's win here gives him 1197 points for the season in the overall World Cup standings with second-placed Benjamin Raich on 1091. Raich finished eighth at 1.03sec back.

Compatriot Didier Cuche remains third on 952 points in the overall standings having finished fifth at 0.57sec.

Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal, who won a Super-G gold, downhill silver and giant slalom bronze at the Vancouver Olympic Games and is fourth in the overall standings on 883 points having crashed out of the morning's first run.

This was Janka's second victory here at the World Cup finals on the Kadahar course, which will host next year's world championships, having won Wednesday's downhill title.