Italy's Alberto Tomba returned to scintillating skiing form last night by claiming the men's World Cup giant slalom in Schladming, Austria. Tomba, cruised to a first place finish with combined runs of one minute 34.21 seconds - beating Austria's Thomas Sykora by 0.89 seconds and third-placed Norwegian Hans-Petter Buraas, who was 1.17 seconds behind the winner.

Sykora congratulated Tomba on his 49th World Cup victory and said: "He's back - what else can I say?" Tomba, whose last victory was in the same race a year ago, admitted this year's event was more difficult because everyone was out to beat him. Austria's Hermann Maier is still the overall points leader.