Intro:

Swedish skiers took the honours in the first men's World Cup slalom event of the Alpine ski season on Sunday with Andre Myhrer edging out Austria's Marcel Hirscher by six hundredths of a second and Myhrer's compatriot Jens Byggmark finishing third at Levi in Finland.

Script:

The first slalom event on the men's World Cup calendar took place on Sunday at the Finnish ski resort of Levi.

Sweden's Jens Byggmark fought all the way to shave just over half a second off Italy's Manfred Moelgg's time. Despite making a mistake on the run to the line Byggmark took the lead and secured a first World Cup podium finish for nearly five years.

Next up was last year's World Cup champion Austria's Marcel Hirscher who was out to put pressure on first run leader Andre Myhrer.

Hirscher crossed the line for a combined time of 1 minute 49.61 seconds taking the lead by 0.55 seonds over Byggmark.

It almost proved enough, but Myhrer was not to be denied a victory.

He took the win by six hundredths of a second with 1 minute 49.55 seconds.