(La Villa) Marco Odermatt won another World Cup giant slalom on Sunday at Alta Badia, but by a slimmer margin than the two-time defending overall World Cup champion is accustomed to.

Odermatt breathed a sigh of relief when the Swiss crossed the finish line with a combined time just 0.19 seconds faster than Filip Zubčić, who could only shake his head and smile wryly.

Zubčić looked set to claim his first victory in almost three years after a brilliant run on the Gran Risa.

The Croatian was more than two seconds ahead of the Slovenian Žan Kranjec.

But Odermatt is almost unbeatable in his favorite discipline.

The Olympic, World and World Cup champion in giant slalom had led after the first run and also had a strong second, claiming his 14th victory in the last 19 World Cup races in the event.

Odermatt, who had also won at Alta Badia in each of the last two years, won the only other giant slalom so far this season last week, by almost a full second.

No one besides Zubčić could come close on Sunday, with Kranjec 2.26 seconds behind.

“I knew Marco was going to start so I wasn’t celebrating yet, because this guy is absolutely… crazy,” Zubčić said. I want to congratulate him: 99.9% of the time, with this race that I managed, you win, but this time it wasn’t enough. »

Canadians James Crawford and Erik Read finished 25th and 26th, respectively.

There’s another giant slalom at Alta Badia on Monday.