Marco Schwarz made it three from three for the Austrian men as he laid down a near-perfect slalom run to claim alpine combined gold at the world championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo on Monday. Schwarz clocked a combined total of 2min 05.86sec, finishing 0.04sec ahead of France's Alexis Pinturault, with Switzerland's Loic Meillard rounding out the podium (+1.12). After Schwarz's teammate Vincent Kriechmayr won both the super-G and downhill in Cortina for a first speed double since 2005, a third gold for Austria looked like it might have been out of reach after the combined's opening super-G. Pinturault, who won a surprise bronze in last week's super-G proper, posted the second fastest time in the opening run, with Schwarz 0.32sec down on the Frenchman. Schwarz, however, nailed the fastest slalom run to pinch victory from the defending champion. lp/gj/iwd