It took a four-year wait and a lot of hard work for Christian Mayer to win in the World Cup giant slalom at Alta Badia.

The 25-year-old skier from Finkenstein, Austria, had to battle a damaged, tricky course, defeat a world champion and fight off the strongest squad on the men's circuit - his Austrian teammates.

Mayer clocked the fastest time in the first run and took all the risks in the second, down the steep Gran Risa course, to clinch his second World Cup career victory on Sunday.

His previous and only triumph was in a giant slalom at Val D'Isere in 1993.

The winner beat world giant slalom champion Michael von Gruenigen of Switzerland by 0.43 seconds as he led an impressive showing of Austrian skiers who took seven of the top eight places.

The Austrians also swept the five top places in a World Cup downhill at Beaver Creek last month.

Mayer was the last of 30 second-run starters, in reverse order of the first-heat finishers, and competed on a deteriorated course filled with bumps, holes and some parts of soft snow.

He nearly missed a gate in the upper part of the track, made some acrobatics to make the next part and completed the race in the combined time of two minutes, 20.97 seconds.

"I risked everything. I knew I could go out but I still pushed hard," he said. "I'm happy, happy, happy."

Russia dominates biathlon

In Kontiolahti, Finland, Russia dominated the biathlon World Cup 4 x 7.5-kilometer men's relay on Sunday, winning comfortably while the Czech Republic beat France for the women's victory at the same distance.

Russia beat Belarus by 22.7 seconds while Italy overtook Austria at the last of eight shooting stations, 2.5 kilometers from the finish to place third.

Russia was only 7th after the first leg. The day's fastest man, Vladimir Dratchev, lifted the team to the top spot at the first of two shooting stations.

Belarus maintained its second position for most of the race, with fast-firing veteran Alexander Popov managing to cut Russia's one-minute lead to 16 seconds going out on the last 2.5 kilometer skiing stretch.

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