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March 7, 2010

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Home » Sports » Skiing

Vonn, Cuche rule in downhill

Source: Agencies | March 7, 2010, Sunday | Print Edition

AMERICAN Lindsey Vonn added the downhill World Cup title to her Olympic gold when she won yesterday's speed event in Crans Montana, Switzerland.

Vonn, needing to finish ahead of Maria Riesch to secure the title for a third successive year, powered down the Nationale course to beat Italian Johanna Schnarf by a hundredth of a second and grab her sixth World Cup downhill win this season.

Swiss Marianne Abderhalden, who like Schnarf benefited from improved conditions, claimed a surprise third place, while Germany's Riesch dropped back to sixth.

Riesch, who won two golds at the Vancouver Olympics, will need some fantastic performances on home snow if she is to deny Vonn the overall title.

Vonn has a 197-point lead over Riesch at the top of the overall World Cup standings going into the finals in Garmisch-Partenkirchen this week.

"It is a relief for me to win this title here," said Vonn. "There is still a lot to come up... However, I'll be going to the finals with a light heart."

Vonn had already secured the super-G World Cup title going into the Olympics, where she won a bronze in super-G as well as the downhill gold.

On Friday, she was assured of finishing top of the super-combined World Cup standings after the race was canceled. The International Ski Federation must decide whether she will officially be crowned super-combined champion, as only two races have been completed all season.

Vonn completed yesterday's downhill in foggy conditions, as did Riesch who was in second until several outsiders finished ahead of her when the light became better.

"That's Alpine skiing: sometimes you need some luck," Vonn said after finishing in a time of one minute 35.26 seconds. "The conditions were not the same for everyone."

In Kvitfjell, Norway, Swiss Didier Cuche made up for his Olympic disappointment when he clinched his third downhill World Cup title with a commanding win yesterday.

Cuche, who left Vancouver empty-handed last month, clocked a winning time of 1:45.98 on the Olympiabakken course to beat Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal by 0.47 seconds.

Austrian Klaus Kroell took third place, 0.57 off the pace.

Cuche secured the crystal globe by finishing ahead of his closest rivals, among them giant slalom Olympic champion Carlo Janka who was sixth after making mistakes on the upper part.

"Winning a World Cup title four years in a row is a proof of consistency," said Cuche, who had previously won the downhill World Cup in 2007 and 2008 and took the giant slalom trophy last season.

Austria's Benjamin Raich, who ended more than two seconds behind Cuche, will start the finals in Garmisch-Partenkirchen with a 70-point lead in the overall World Cup standings over Swiss Janka.
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