Newly-crowned world super-G champion Patrick Staudacher blushed with embarrassed pride after becoming Italy's first world ski champion since the great Alberto Tomba.

The 26-year-old stunned race favourites Bode Miller, the defending champion, and aging Austrian ace Hermann Maier to claim the biggest prize of his career in a season of no World Cup podiums so far.

Austria's Fritz Strobl took second with Switzerland's Bruno Kernen in third.

Like Staudacher, there was also a surprised joy for the pair who had been forced to qualify for their respective teams' super-G outfits.

For Miller, whose slalom performances have taken a massive tumble this past year, another error-strewn performance in a discpline in which he really should have done better left him in 24th place at 1.34sec behind.

The 29-year-old American is now under pressure to perform in Saturday's blue riband event of the downhill, in which he is defending champion.

Maier finished in seventh, missing out on a fourth world super-G medal by just 0.04secs.

With few chances to make up time on the bottom part of the course, Staudacher's superb start and almost flawless run proved crucial.

"I had a solid run, but the best I thought I would finish was fifth or sixth," said Staudacher, whose best result this season was a fifth place in the downhill.

"I think I got the benefit of having a relatively early start. But I also skied well."

While Tomba last won world championship gold in the slalom and giant for Italy in 1996, the last Italian to win in a speed event was Zeno Colo, who won the downhill in 1952.

Staudacher began his career as a slalomer, but he went positively red when the great Tomba's name was mentioned in the same breathe as his.

"It's a great feeling to be the first Italian world champion since Alberto. I'm very happy and proud, but I'm also finding it hard to believe what I've just done," he added.

Another 18 racers followed the Italian down the Olympia course, which was bathed in sunny, clear conditions after four days of inclement weather.

But only Strobl, the 2002 Olympic downhill champion, came close to pushing the him off the top step of the podium.

In what could be the Austrian's final season of competition, Strobl said he hoped this result would help convince team bosses that he's worth a place on their downhill team.

"I met Bruno (Kernen) earlier in the week and we had a coffee. And we realised that neither of us had an automatic place on our super-G teams. Now, we both have a medal," he said.

"I'm feeling good. It's up to the team bosses now to decide for the downhill."

Kernen grabbed the bronze by just 0.02 over Austrian Christoph Gruber and fellow Swiss Didier Cuche, who tied for fourth place.

He admitted to being shocked when Maier failed to beat his time.

"I almost couldn't believe it when Hermann Maier was at the finish. It's a very emotional moment for me. I almost can't believe it.

"A lot of times during my career I've been on the wrong end of the hundredths of a second. Now, I'm on the right side