Intro:

Austria's Anna Fenninger seized the lead in the overall World Cup standings on Friday by winning a giant slalom for the second successive day at Are in Sweden.

Script:

Anna Fenninger led after the first run of the Swedish World Cup giant slalom event on Friday, putting herself in position to take the lead in the overall standings.

The Austrian clocked 58.49 seconds on the shortened course, 0.12 seconds faster than Anemone Marmottan of France and 0.42 faster than Slovenia's Tine Maze.

There was drama in the second run under the floodlights though.

Firstly Maze skied out and then Marmottan fell allowing others to claim a podium place.

But it was Fenninger who kept her composure to seize the lead in the overall World Cup standings with a second successive victory.

The 24-year-old Austrian extended her first-leg lead to beat Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany by 0.61 seconds.

Jessica Lindell-Vikarby of Sweden was third, trailing 0.68 behind Fenninger's combined time of 2 minutes, 00.15 seconds, but retained her lead in the season-long giant slalom standings.

Still it's Fenninger who leads overall, with the 100 race points from victory to take a slender seven-point advantage: 1,151 to 1,144 over Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany.