Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde powered to victory in the classic Kitzbuehel World Cup down-hill on Friday, beating French veteran Johan Clarey by 0.42 seconds.
A great day for the French team was completed when Blaise Giezendanner, running 43rd, produced a spectacular run to push Austria’s Matthias Mayer out of third place.
Overall World Cup leader Marco Odermatt of Switzerland finished in fifth place at what is the marquee event of the ski season.
Kilde’s win, in 1:55.92 on a shortened course, was the 20-year-old’s sixth of the World Cup season and he will have a chance of another in Sunday’s scheduled second race – the final downhill before the Beijing Winter Games next month.
“I had such a good run, incredible feeling, standing here now just over a year after the opera-tion on my knee, quite incredible. Today was one of the days when I had a really good feeling,” said Kilde.
The Norwegian takes over on top of the down-hill World Cup standings, moving ahead of Italian Dominik Paris. Following his triumph in the other classic downhill, at Wengen last week, Kilde looking the man to beat in Beijing, became the fourth Norwe-gian to win at Kitzbuehel.
“It is one of the biggest races I can win. It’s Kitzbuehel, raw conditions and difficult weather. I put this high on the list of what I have done before,” he said. Second-place was an outstanding result for 41-year-old Clarey, his ninth career World Cup podium coming 12 years after his first.—APP
