Afdaling vrouwen Zauchensee

Renate Goetschl earned Austria's first World Cup downhill win of the season with a much awaited victory on home snow at Altenmarkt on Saturday.

The 31-year-old former World Champion claimed the 41st World Cup triumph of her career in a provisional time of one minute and 19.32 seconds.

Wearing bib number one, Switzerland's Dominique Gisin survived 27 skiers before the Austrian legend pipped her by 0.23 seconds with just one of the major challengers left to go.

The 21-year-old Gisin ultimately finished in second for her first ever World Cup podium placing, as Olympic giant slalom champion Julia Mancuso claimed third-place a further 0.07 seconds behind the Swiss.

In bib number 30, the discipline's leader Lindsey Kildow crashed hard into the netting early in her run after blazing to a 0.50 seconds lead over Goetschl's split time on the top portion of the Zauchensee course, the slopes selected by Salzburg for its 2014 Winter Olympic bid.

Goetschl, who underwent knee surgery at the end of last season, won two super-G races last month and had two second places in downhill.

Gisin, who has had five knee operations and had never done better than ninth in a World Cup race before, said: "This is something really crazy. I am feeling so many emotions, I know that I will need a few moments to take in what is happening."

The Swiss racer has postponed training as a military helicopter pilot to concentrate on ski racing. With her good result coming six days after Marc Berthod's maiden win on the men's World Cup the Swiss have high hopes of becoming giants of the sport again.

Mancuso nearly sat down as she landed from the final jump and said: "I am trying not to be too disappointed with third place. I think I lost the race with my two jumps."

Altenmarkt organisers had lowered the start by 800 metres on Saturday because of continuing high winds. The Austrian resort is also due to host a super-combined event on Sunday but officials have called off a super-G.

Saturday's contest was a replacement for Fridays' downhill, which was rescheduled due to dangerously high winds.

Bron : europsort.com