Skiing: Masterful Maier makes it three wins in a row

The seemingly unstoppable Hermann Maier was again in a league of his own yesterday to clinch his second World Cup super-giant slalom win in two days in front of noisy home support at Schladming, Austria.

The former bricklayer, who posted a time of 1min 14.84sec, led the Austrian men in their fourth sweep of the podium places this season with Andreas Schifferer second in 1:16.03 and Stefan Eberharter third.

Maier now has six victories in three different disciplines this winter and 11 top-three finishes in 14 races. The winner of the season's other super-G in Beaver Creek, Colorado, Maier equalled the Norwegian Kjetil Andre Aamodt's 1993 record of three consecutive super-G wins.

On the women's side, it was Germany's weekend as Hilde Gerg won a World Cup slalom race at Bormio yesterday. She was the second German winner in two days after Martina Ertl won the giant slalom there on Saturday.