Slovenia's Maze leads World Cup giant slalom

Tina Maze of Slovenia took advantage of an early start to lead a women's World Cup giant slalom after the first heat Friday.

Maze, a silver medalist at last month's world championships, was the first skier out of the gate and covered the 53-gate Horn course in 1 minute, 19.18 seconds.

She had a comfortable advantage for the second run over Kathrin Zettel of Austria, the World Cup leader in the giant slalom, who clocked 1:19.56.

Manuela Moelgg of Italy was third in 1:19.80.

Tanja Poutiainen of Finland, who trails Zettel by one point in the giant slalom standings, was fifth at 1:20.09.

Overall World Cup leader Lindsey Vonn of the United States was ninth, 1.89 seconds behind the leader.

The top six racers finished in the starting order, indicating that steady wet snow slowed down the later skiers.