VAL D'ISERE, France, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Germany's Kathrin Hoelzl edged Tina Maze of Slovenia Thursday to win the women's giant slalom event at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in France.
Hoelzl, ranked 13th in the world going into the Worlds, put together a total time of 2 minutes, 3.49 seconds in her two runs, just .09 seconds ahead of Maze.
Hoelzl's individual runs at Val d'Isere were timed at 1:00.21 and 1:03.28 and won her first World Cup event.
Finland's Tanja Poutiainen placed third despite a sizzling 59.93 seconds on her first run.
The formidable Kathrin Zettel of Austria led after the first round but experienced some trouble with sliding on the turns and finished in sixth with a combined time of 2:04.31.
On the longer men's course, Alexander Horoshilov was atop the leader board with a combined 2:34.70.
The International Ski Federation also announced Thursday that Switzerland's Daniel Albrecht had been brought out of a drug-induced coma at a hospital in Innsbruck, Austria. He had been unconscious since Jan. 22 when he crashed during a World Cup downhill race in nearby Kitzbuhl.
