BORMIO, Italy, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Norway's Atle Lie McGrath led an attritional Olympic men's slalom with the fastest time of a first run that many of the favourites including Brazil's Lucas Pinheiro Braathen failed to complete on Monday.
Driving snow and a tricky course made conditions treacherous for the final men's Alpine skiing race but World Cup slalom leader McGrath had no trouble. Benefiting from being the first skier on a bloated 96-man start list, McGrath was smooth and clinical to stop the clock on 56.14 seconds.
He will take an advantage of 0.59 seconds over Swiss world champion Loic Meillard into the second leg later. Austria's Fabio Gstrein was third-quickest, 0.94 seconds off the pace.
Norway-born Braathen, who on Saturday won the giant slalom to give Brazil and South America a first ever Winter Olympic medal, began his run well but lost control midway down and slid out.
Several top contenders suffered the same fate including France's Paco Rassat who straddled a gate and Austria's Manuel Feller, who impressed in the slalom section of the men's combined.
McGrath is racing little more than a week after the death of his grandfather.
"I really like when I can just go out and set the standard. So that was my goal," McGrath said. "This is a huge challenge for an Alpine skier. Maybe the biggest there is, but I'm ready.”
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Ed Osmond)
