ITALY'S Alberto Tomba captured his first World Championship gold medal in Sierra Nevada yesterday when he held off a strong Swiss challenge to win the men's giant slalom.

Tomba, the most successful Alpine skier in Olympic history with three golds and two silver medals, finished the two legs of the race in one minute 58.63 seconds, 0.44 ahead of Switzerland's Urs Kaelin. Pre race favourite Michael von Gruenigen, another Swiss, won bronze in a time of 1:59.45.

The 29 year old Tomba, who won the giant slalom and slalom at the 1988 Olympics and the giant slalom again in 1992, started first in the opening leg and opened up a time advantage of just 0.03.

After a disappointing second leg performance by Kjus and a storming run by Olympic silver medallist Kaelin, Tomba was under intense pressure as he started his second run.

The Italian made what looked like a costly mistake, drifting at a gate one third of the way down the course, but regained his momentum for a gold medal which delighted his fans in the crowd.

"This was surely one of my most difficult victories," Tomba said. "I heard the whistles and klaxons when I started and I was really inspired, I was just charging down.

"Then I made that mistake. I managed to right myself as I did in Hinterstoder (at a World Cup race) two weeks ago and I just carried on charging. My goal was a medal, any medal. I was not going for gold."

The last Italian man to win the World Championship giant slalom was Tomba's own coach, Gustavo Thoeni, at St Moritz, Switzerland, in 1974.

Kaelin, giant slalom silver medallist at the 1991 World Championships and again in Lillehammer in 1994, was disappointed with his first leg performance, which left him lying in fourth place, 0.65 seconds off the pace.

"I had so many problems in the first run which probably cost me the gold. But I did the best I could in the second," said the Swiss, who turns 30 on Monday.