Austria's Raphael Haaser kick-started a home party as he stormed to gold in the men's giant slalom at the Alpine Skiing World Championships after a superb second run on Friday.

SAALBACH-HINTERGLEMM, Austria (AP) — Austrian skier Raphael Haaser ended the Swiss dominance in the men’s events at the Alpine world championships by winning the giant slalom on Friday. Haaser improved from fifth place in the opening run as the leading racers faltered in the second, and he finished ahead of three Swiss rivals.

Austrian Raphael Haaser went from fifth place to win the World Alpine Skiing Championships giant slalom, the first top-level victory of his career. Haaser, 27, prevailed by 23 hundredths of a second over Swiss Thomas Tumler combining times from two runs in Saalbach,

Italy's Federica Brignone and New Zealand's Alice Robinson ran away from the field Thursday with Moltzan sneaking into the No. 3 spot.

Paula Moltzan kept the U.S. women’s hot streak at the world championships going. Moltzan won bronze in the giant slalom on Thursday, edging Thea Louise Stjernesund by just 0.01 seconds for the first individual worlds medal of her career.

Italian Federica Brignone will go into a home Olympics as a reigning world champion, while Minnesotan Paula Moltzan is a first-time individual world medalist, 12-plus years after her debut at ski racing’s highest level.