Michael Walchhofer led Austria to a 1-2 finish in a World Cup downhill yesterday in Wengen, Switzerland, while overall leader Bode Miller was third on the famed Lauberhorn, the longest course on the circuit.
Walchhofer covered the demanding 2.8-mile run in 2 minutes 27.05 seconds -- 0.09 of a second ahead of Christoph Gruber. It was the first downhill victory of the season for Walchhofer, the reigning world champion in the discipline.
Michael Walchhofer exults after winning a World Cup downhill race. American Bode Miller increased his lead in the overall standings.
(Giovanni Auletta -- AP)
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"I have patience," said Walchhofer, who had top-three finishes in six of seven downhills this season. "But I knew I was in great shape and it was only a question of time before I won a downhill."
Miller was 0.18 second behind the winner and managed to take third despite skipping the morning inspection run, preventing an Austrian sweep of the top four spots. The result allowed him to pad his lead in the overall standings after failing to score points in Friday's super-combination.
The American stretched his overall lead to 258 points. Second-place finisher Benjamin Raich of Austria gained 100 points on Miller after winning Friday's super-combined race but didn't start yesterday. Miller has 1,048 points after 21 of 38 events, followed by Raich at 790 and Walchhofer at 641.
Walchhofer tops the downhill standings with 431 points. Miller is second at 378, with Austria's Johann Grugger third at 321.
Defending overall champion Hermann Maier was encouraged after finishing fourth in the downhill in 2:27.67. His equipment struggles this season have hurt him in the speed disciplines. Another Austrian, Werner Franz, was fifth in 2:27.77.
• WOMEN'S SKIING: Austria's Renate Goetschl won a downhill for her third victory in four days in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, and Croatia's Janica Kostelic showed she is back at the summit of World Cup skiing after missing all of last season.
Goetschl posted a winning time of 1:37.27 -- 0.29 of a second ahead of Kostelic. Lindsey Kildow of the United States finished third, 0.44 behind, for her sixth top-three finish this season.
This was Goetschl's eighth victory on the Olympia delle Tofane course. It was also her 36th World Cup victory, tying her with Germany's Katja Seizinger for third place on the career list.
• MOGULS: In Lake Placid, N.Y., Olympic silver medalist Travis Mayer won the first World Cup event of his career, and defending World Cup champion Jennifer Heil of Canada won the women's event.
Mayer, of Steamboat Springs, Colo., received 26.71 points from the judges at Whiteface Mountain as he took the World Cup points lead. Moguls world champion Mikko Ronkainen of Finland took second with 26.40 points and Canadian Marc-Andre Moreau finished third with 26.19.
• LUGE: In Igls, Austria, German Georg Hackl won his 33rd World Cup event to join Austrian Markus Prock atop the career list.
Hackl, who also won last year on the Olympic track, finished with a combined time of 1:37.553 for the two runs. Austria's Markus Kleinheinz (1:37.721) was second, and Italian Armin Zoeggeler (1:37.818) finished third. The 38-year-old Hackl also won gold at the world championships eight years ago on the same track.
Kleinheinz closed in on World Cup leader Albert Demtchenko of Russia in the overall standings. The Russian had a bad day, making mistakes in both runs and finishing sixth.
• BIATHLON: Four-time Olympic champion Ole Einar Bjoerndalen of Norway won a World Cup event in Ruhpolding, Germany, using his speed in cross-country skiing to edge Raphael Poiree of France in a 10-kilometer sprint.
