By Martyn Herman

Patrick Staudacher sprung a huge surprise on Tuesday when he became the first Italian male world champion in an Alpine skiing speed event for 55 years with a gold-medal run in the men's super-G.

Competing at his first world championships the 26-year-old part-time rock musician left a host of favourites trailing in his wake, clocking an unbeatable time of one minute 14.30 seconds to emulate Zeno Colo's downhill gold in 1952.

Alberto Tomba was the last Italian world champion, doing the slalom double in 1996 in Sierra Nevada.

After three days of blizzards, gales and low cloud, ski fans woke up to glorious sunshine and plummeting temperatures in the Swedish resort and fully expected a battle between American Bode Miller and Austrian great Hermann Maier.

Instead Staudacher, the 12th starter, came from nowhere to sparkle in the sunshine in the twice-postponed race as the weather-blighted championships finally got going.

"This is a dream come true. It's madness," Staudacher told reporters at the bottom of the sun-drenched course.

"The conditions today suited me perfectly. I was able to attack, to take risks, to ski aggressively."

"I always knew that if I could put it all together, I could be at the very top. I would have been satisfied with a top-six placing but this is unbelievable," added Staudacher, who plays bass guitar in his own cover band.

STROBL THREATENED

Only former Olympic downhill champion Fritz Strobl seriously threatened to deny Staudacher, the Austrian taking the silver medal 0.32 seconds behind while Swiss veteran Bruno Kernen was third, 0.62 seconds back.

Swiss Didier Cuche shared fourth spot with Austrian Christoph Gruber.

Strobl was critical of the starting order, which he said placed the top racers at a disadvantage, although he was happy to get on the podium.

"It's a great relief. I had to work hard to convince everybody that I deserved to be at the start. The starting numbers were certainly a disadvantage for the top racers. The FIS (International Ski Federation) rules are not really fair."

The fast conditions should have been perfect for the risk-taking American all rounder Miller and former world and Olympic super-G champion Maier.

Defending champion Miller, who was the 29th man down the demanding Olympia course, was at his ragged worst, finishing in 24th position while Maier failed to mount a serious challenge as he tied seventh.

"My disappointment is limited when I look at the surprising result," said Maier. "It would have been possible to win today even with a high starting bib but I did not take enough risks in some sections."

Miller left the finish area without speaking to reporters.

World Cup leader Aksel Lund-Svindal of Norway was down in 13th place while there was also disappointment and pain for Frenchman Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin who crashed near the bottom and suffered a suspected dislocated shoulder.