SCHLADMING, Austria (Ticker) - Youth triumphed over experience today as Austrian rookie Mario Matt edged veteran Norwegian Ole Christian Furuseth and teammate Thomas Stangassinger to claim his second World Cup slalom win of the season.

Under floodlights and driving rain, Matt refused to be rattled by his veteran opposition or the 30,000 Austrian fans lining the Planai course, crossing in a two-run combined time of 1 minute, 44.72 seconds.

The victory firmly established Matt as the undisputed rising star on the Austrian squad, the bleached blonde 20-year-old with gold rings in each ear having now reached the podium four times in seven World Cup races. Matt burst onto the World Cup scene in January, stunning the favorites and another large audience when he came from the back of the field to claim his maiden victory at Austria's most famous ski resort, Kitzbuehel, in only his third race.

"It's hard to say which race was better, here or Kitzbuehel," Matt said. "It's a great feeling to win in front of your own fans. It was a superb race. I'm especially proud of how I skied in the second run.

"I don't know what it is. Everything looks easy at the moment for me. I risked it all in the second run and it paid off."

The other places on the podium were occupied by two of the World Cup's senior citizens, the 33-year-old Furuseth, the silver medalist at the Nagano Olympics who took second in 1:45.53.

Stangassinger, 34, competing in the 144th and perhaps next-to-last last race of his career, was third in 1:45.62.

The leader after the opening run and the last skier onto the rutted, rain-soaked course, it was Matt who displayed the steely nerve of a veteran. With Stangassinger and Furuseth looking on from the finish area and expecting the young Austrian to crack, Matt produced a near-perfect second trip, sparking wild celebrations when his time was flashed on the scoreboard.

"I thought I could beat them all, but Matt was too good today," said Furuseth, a runner-up three times this season. "It's incredible to race here, you can't hear anything and all you can see is the crowd. These fans deserved an Austrian success and Matt is a great guy."

Norway's Kjetil Andre Aamodt had an opportunity to lock up the overall slalom title but will have to wait for next week's season finale in Bormio, Italy, to claim one of the few titles not already in his trophy case. He settled for fourth today in 1:45.80.

With one race remaining, Aamodt holds an almost unbeatable 80-point lead over Slovenia's Matjaz Vrhovnik in the slalom standings. Aamodt's result cut Hermann Maier's lead atop the overall standings to 360 points but with only five races remaining and a maximum 500 points on offer, the Norwegian still faces a near-impossible task of overhauling the Austrian.

Last year's winner on the Planai piste, Austria's Benjamin Raich, did not make it to the start hut. He was forced to sit out the race after sustaining a mild concussion in a crash during Wednesday's giant slalom in nearby Kranjska Gora.