Madonna Di Campiglio, (Italy): Austria's Marcel Hirscher narrowly avoided serious injury when a drone fell to the ground during Tuesday's alpine skiing World Cup slalom won by Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen at the Italian resort of Madonna di Campiglio.
The drone, being used to film television pictures of the course from above, crashed to the ground just centimetres away from the 26-year-old Austrian during his second run.
"Heavy air traffic in Italy #crazy #drone #crash #luckyme," wrote four-time defending overall World Cup champion Hirscher on his Instagram account after the incident, which overshadowed Kristoffersen's victory.
The 21-year-old Norwegian clocked 1 min 37.8sec in the floodlit event to beat second-place Hirscher by 1.25sec, with another Austrian, Marco Schwarz, completing the podium 1.59sec off the pace.
It was the second straight win in the discipline this season for Kristoffersen, the Olympic slalom bronze medallist from Sochi, following his victory over Hirscher at Val d'Isere in France earlier this month.
Schwarz's first podium finish came at the expense of Italy's 2010 Olympic champion Giuliano Razzoli, who had to settle for fourth spot.
Hirscher's second place was enough for him to reclaim the overall World Cup lead from Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal, with Kjetil Jansrud third and Kristoffersen fourth overall.
Tuesday's result completed a good couple of days in Italy for the Norwegian contingent, with Jansrud winning Monday's inaugural parallel giant slalom at Alta Badia ahead of Svindal.
Hirscher won the giant slalom at Alta Badia on Sunday ahead of Kristoffersen. The next World Cup race is a downhill at Santa Caterina on December 27.
Download the all new Deccan Chronicle app for Android and iOS to stay up-to-date with latest headlines and news stories in politics, entertainment, sports, technology, business and much more from India and around the world.
