Brad Wall and Luke Deane have both skied to a top 80 per cent of field result in the opening giant slalom event of the 2006 World Cup season in Soelden, collecting the first of three qualification performances necessary for one of them to gain a place in the Australian team for Torino in February 2006.

Wall recorded a time of 1 minute 13.44 seconds in the first run down the Rettenbach course on the glacier above the Austrian town, 5.40 seconds behind the fastest time of 2005 World Cup champion Bode Miller of the United States.

Deane was a little under a second behind his team-mate in 59th place, in a time of 1:14:35.

Austrian legend Hermann Maier went on to win the race, demonstrating his Torino Olympic medal-winning potential right from the start of the season.

Maier won in a combined time of 2 minutes 17.60 seconds, after sitting in fifth place following the first run.

The first run leader, 2005 World Cup overall champion Bode Miller of the US, finished in second place, with Austrian Rainer Schoenfelder collecting the bronze.

It was Maier's fourth victory in the season-opening event. The four-time World Cup overall champion won GS gold at the 2005 World Championships in Bormio in March, but his last GS World Cup victory was in Are, Norway, back in March 2001.

The next giant slalom event of the season will be in Beaver Creek, Colorado, on December 3.

Australia's speed skiers, AJ Bear and Craig Branch, will contest the opening downhill and super G events of the season in Lake Louise, Canada, on the weekend of November 26-27.

Olympic Winter Institute