Austria’s Reinfried Herbst produced a fine second run to win the men’s World Cup alpine skiing slalom in Levi.

Croatia’s Ivica Kostelic was second and France’s Jean-Baptiste Grange was third.

Herbst, 31, was fourth after the first run on a course designed by his coach, but found the speed to upstage his rivals and win the sixth slalom of his career in a combined time of one minute and 49.79 seconds.

Kostelic was 0.28s behind Herbst with Grange, the winner on the same slope a year ago, 0.53s down.

“The course was much faster in the second leg. You had to push from the first gate,” said Herbst.

“It was great run for me, especially as I had slips with my shape in training. I was a little bit luck.”

Victory in Levi was a huge boost for the Salzburg-born skier, who will hope to improve on his 2006 slalom silver medal at next year’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

“It’s always so difficult to qualify for the Olympics within the Austrian team so this is extremely important,” he said.

Kostelic was also greatly relieved after seeing most of his previous season hampered by a mysterious back injury.

“This is the light at the end of the tunnel as I had not made it on a podium since last January,” the 2003 slalom world champion said.

Sweden’s Andre Myhrer was fastest in the morning session ahead of France’s Julien Lizeroux and Grange, but he faltered in the steep second part of the course in the afternoon, like many other competitors and finished 11th.

Bode Miller, back in action after a long break, narrowly qualified for the second leg but the American, second on the same slope last year, crashed out of contention in the afternoon after being hit in the face by a pole.

The men’s World Cup next moves to North America with races in Lake Louise and Beaver Creek.