It was the first individual gold medal for his home country in these Championships. Germany's Felix Neureuther and Austria's Mario Matt clinched silver and bronze.

The 23-year-old Austrian super star was showing a supreme performance by defending his lead from the first run and making it his third medal in these Worlds next to gold in the Team Event and silver in Giant Slalom.

“It was maybe the toughest thing in my life so far. The whole country, about 4 million people, was watching the race and expecting me to win. The pressure was extremely high and I don’t know what I would have done if I had strattled and not finished the race. It feels very special to me to have become World Champion, especially here in my home country in Austria!”, a relieved and truly delighted Hirscher said after the race.

Neureuther who was more than happy with his first individual World Championship medal and Hirscher's team mate Matt came in +0.42 and +0.65 seconds behind. "It’s been very emotional. I finally realized what I have been waiting for all my life!", Neureuther underlined his excitement.

Matt completed the strong Austrian performance in this event. By claiming third spot, the 33-year-old added a 5th medal to his collection: Slalom gold and Super Combined silver in St. Anton (AUT) in 2011, Slalom gold in Are (SWE) in 2007, Team Event gold in Schladming.

Austria has now taken second position (2 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze) in the nation medals standing right after the United States (4 gold, 1 bronze) and in front of France (2 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze).