Dimitri Cuche of Switzerland won the men's giant slalom out of two runs on Wednesday at the Harbin Universiade.

Cuche recorded a overall time of two minutes 11.20 seconds from two runs. His first run was one minute and 2.83 seconds placing in sixth, but a perfect second run earned him the gold medal, which was Switzerland's fifth out of a total of six on alpine skiing at the Universiade.

Japan's Ohkoshi Ryuunosuke took second place 0.29 seconds behind and Jonathan Midol of France was edged down to third place 0.37 seconds adrift.

Ohkoshi ranked a provisional fourth after the first run, but managed two places up to make the podium. Midol led after the first run in 1:02.38, then was squeezed two place down from top.

Double gold medalist Sandro Boner finished in fifth place in the discipline. Boner clinched triumphs over downhill and super-G here in previous competitions.

"I made mistakes in my first run, but I have a perfect second run, which help me to win," said 23-year-old Cuche.

"I gave my best in the second run so I'm happy with my performance. We keep a good team mentality and that's why we're dominant in alpine skiing here," said Cuche from the Neuchatel University in Switzerland.

"I take training almost over one hundred days a year. I have never been to world championships and even junior world championships, so it's a day remarkable for me," added Cuche.

Switzerland demonstrated a dominant power on alpine skiing. Tamara Wolf grabbed the women's downhill and super-G. The only title sliding away out of six disciplines in alpine skiing so far was women's giant slalom going to Japan's Mizue Hoshi on Tuesday.

(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2009)