Aksel Lund Svindal reclaims downhill title

Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal reclaimed the men’s world downhill title on Saturday to win his eighth world championship medal and second in Schladming after a super-G bronze.

The 2007 downhill world champion and Olympic silver-medallist dominated the race with a masterful run that saw him cross the finish line in a time of 2min 01.32sec.

Italy’s Dominik Paris was second at 0.46sec, with France’s David Poisson winning bronze at 0.97sec.

For the Austrian contingent, briefly buoyed by Nicole Hosp’s super-combined bronze on Friday, it was another day of disappointment, after the men’s and women’s super-G fiascos earlier in the week.

Local boy Klaus Kroell, last season’s downhill World Cup winner, finished just off the podium, handing Austria yet another fourth place.

The ski-mad nation’s last downhill world title goes back to 2003.

Svindal, who now adds a fifth world champion title to his trophy collection, was ecstatic in the finish area.

“I knew I couldn’t do it better,” said the towering 30-year-old.

“It’s better to really go all out and make a few tiny mistakes than be perfect. I took a lot of risks, didn’t make any big mistakes and thank goodness, I made it into the finish.”

‘It’s logical’

Downhill World Cup leader Paris, 23, added: “I tried to keep up and I’m glad I could.

“I didn’t think I’d make such a good run, that I’d get this far.”

The 30-year-old Poisson, who has never yet made a World Cup podium and has just seven top-10 finishes in nine seasons, saw a natural progression from his results in Kitzbuehel two weeks ago.

“Last race I was fourth, now I’m third. It’s logical!” he said, laughing. It was amazingly only France’s second medal-winning performance in a world downhill since 1968.

“I’m proud of my medal.”

Kroell said he struggled to make it to the bottom of the course.

“It already didn’t start so well at the top but at the bottom I really had to fight hard,” the Austrian said.

“I lost energy unfortunately and wasn’t able to attack anymore… at the last split I actually thought I won’t make it anymore.”

The 3,334m-long (two-mile) icy and twisting course, which saw the skiers hurtling down at speeds approaching 110 kilometres per hour, left numerous casualties in its wake, including many of the favourites for gold.

Reigning downhill champion Erik Guay of Canada was well placed to defend his title with the fastest time in the first sections when he made a costly mistake. Unable to get back into his stride, he failed to finish the race.

Austria’s other big hope Hannes Reichelt, who had been fastest in the first downhill training run and was fighting for a medal after just missing out on a podium in the super-G on Wednesday, missed a gate after a bad landing from a jump and also went out.

“I’m really lucky that I’m here and healthy because I was on the limit of a crash,” he said.