Austria sign off with Pranger gold

VAL D'ISERE, France: Manfred Pranger earned Austria's men's team their only gold medal at the Alpine Skiing World Championships by winning the closing slalom on Sunday.

Pranger clocked a combined winning time of one minute 44.17 seconds down the steep, icy Bellevarde piste to save his ski-mad nation from the embarrassment of leaving the worlds without a men's title for the first time since 1997.

The 31-year-old, who posted his first World Cup win in nearly four years in a slalom in Wengen last month, set the fastest time in the first run and held his nerve in the second to present Austria with their third successive world slalom title.