Tanja Poutiainen made a winning start to her defence of the giant slalom World Cup title in Soelden, Austria - albeit by just one hundreth of a second. The Finn produced a storming second run to edge out home favourite Kathrin Zettel. "This is a dream start to the season," she said.

Italy's Denise Karbon was the leader at the mid-point but lost vital time in the closing stages of her second run and dropped to third. Great Britain's Chemmy Alcott made a solid if unspectacular start to her campaign, coming home in 19th spot. The opening race of the season was marred by an injury to Austria's Nicole Hosp.

Hosp, the 2007 overall World Cup champion, crashed in the morning run and was flown to hospital in Innsbruck with torn ligaments in her right knee.

Result:
1 T Poutiainen (Fin) 1:12.14 1:12.82 2:24.96
2 K Zettel (Aut) 1:12.40 1:12.57 2:24.97
3 D Karbon (Ita) 1:11.52 1:13.76 2:25.28
4 T Maze (Svn) 1:13.01 1:12.79 2:25.80
5 M Pietilae-Holmner (Swe) 1:12.56 1:13.28 2:25.84
6 A Paerson (Swe) 1:13.34 1:12.57 2:25.91
7 K Hoelzl (Ger) 1:13.32 1:12.84 2:26.16
8 V Rebensburg (Ger) 1:13.52 1:12.76 2:26.28
9 L Vonn (US) 1:13.30 1:13.05 2:26.35
10 C Alfieri (Ita) 1:14.73 1:11.70 2:26.43