Michael Walchhofer will be a tough man to beat for the World Cup downhill title.
Walchhofer's second consecutive downhill victory put even more space between him and newly crowned world champion Bode Miller, Johann Grugger and Daron Rahlves.
PHOTO: EPA
"I am going to fight Bode Miller for the downhill title," Walchhofer said. "I remember seeing Stephan Eberharter ski for three years in a league almost of his own and winning the title three years in a row.
PHOTO: AP
"I would be very proud if could win the downhill globe and take over from Eberharter because it would mean I am in the same league."
The 29-year-old Walchhofer has finished on the podium in every downhill this season -- except in the wind-skewed race in Val Gardena, Italy, where he was 20th -- and continued that trend Friday, delivering a near-perfect run down the soft Kandahar course, then mastering the final FIS-Schneise turn to win in one minute, 57.79 seconds.
The win padded Walchhofer's lead atop the World Cup downhill standings, where he sits with 531 points. Miller is second, 93 points behind, while Grugger is third at 371 and Rahlves is fourth with 309.
Only three downhill races remain this season.
Miller is Walchhofer's biggest threat. The 27-year-old American won the season's opening two downhills and finished third the last two races. In addition, he snatched the downhill title from Walchhofer at the world championships in Bormio two weeks ago, after also winning the super-G gold medal.
Rahlves had widely been expected to take over the downhill title this season, after finishing second to Eberharter the last two seasons. But a bad crash in a giant slalom in Adelboden put a dent in his campaign. He is 222 points behind and will have to win or finish second in all three remaining races and hope those ahead of him in the standings do very poorly.
"Anything is possible," Rahlves said. "After Adelboden, I had to miss the downhill in Wengen, and Walchhofer won there.
"It's tough to play catch up. Walchhofer is hot, he's got momentum going, he's consistent. He's pretty much got it in the bag, I think."
Walchhofer was even able to shake off a long, troublesome trend of crashing out on the final turn here. He had crashed four consecutive years on the tricky FIS-Schneise, then last season lost a healthy advantage after skidding onto his backside in the turn and finished back in 16th position.
"It was becoming unbearable for me," Walchhofer said. "I vowed if I failed again this year on that turn, I would rename my Hotel Zauchensee Zentral the hotel FIS-Schneise.
"I think now that I've successfully made it and I won, the turn on the course should be renamed the Walchhofer curve."
Walchhofer won in front of Hermann Maier, the surprise winner of the giant slalom in Bormio, by a stunning .99 seconds. Miller had led at the first two intervals but lost time and speed after going wide on a gate coming out of the bothersome FIS-Schneise turn and settled for third in 1:58.92.
The victory saved face for Austria's men, who failed to capture any of the speed titles at the recent world championships.
Walchhofer finished third in the world championship downhill race behind Miller and his teammate, runner-up Rahlves.
The Austrian also took silver behind Miller in the super-G in Bormio, while Benjamin Raich of Austria, the American's toughest rival in the chase for the overall crown, was a surprising third.
ap, SAUZE D'OULX, Italy
Jeremy Bloom won his sixth straight World Cup moguls event Friday, beating Travis Mayer in a 1-2 American finish on next year's Olympic course.
Bloom won with 27.02 points. Mayer scored 26.61 and Mikko Ronkainen of Finland was third with 26.60.
Bloom now leads the moguls standings by 296 points over countryman Nathan Roberts, who came in 12th Friday.
Norway's Kari Traa won the women's event with 25.86 points, beating Stephanie St. Pierre of Canada (25.14) and Nikola Sudova of the Czech Republic (25.12).
Canada's Jennifer Heil finished 11th but retained her place atop the World Cup standings. She leads Traa 730-549 with only one event remaining -- next week in Voss, Norway.
Bloom, the reigning world champion in freestyle, had to give up playing American college football last season because of his ski endorsements.
AP, SAPPORO, Japan
Switzerland's Daniela Mueli edged Austria's Doris Guenther yesterday in a parallel slalom race to win her third straight snowboarding World Cup event.
Mueli, who won the giant slalom title on Friday, captured her sixth parallel title of the season. Italy's Marion Posch finished third.
Mueli leads the overall World Cup standings with 8,050 points.
In the men's event, Switzerland's Philipp Schoch defeated Austrian Siegfried Grabner for his sixth title. Schoch is first in the World Cup standings with 8,000 points.
AP, HEERENVEEN, Netherlands
Jeremy Wotherspoon of Canada clinched his fourth overall title in the men's 500m with a second-place finish at Friday's World Cup speedskating event, and Manli Wang of China clinched the women's 500m with a win.
Also, Cindy Klassen of Canada clinched the overall title with a comfortable win in the women's 1,500m.
In the men's 500m, Dmitry Lobkov of Russia was first in 35.11 seconds, with Wotherspoon second at 35.13. With 688 points and with only one heat remaining Sunday, Wotherspoon's lead is insurmountable.
Wang finished in 38.34, beating Angelika Kotyuga of Bulgaria, her only remaining threat to the title.
In the women's 1,500m, Klassen took first place in 1 minute, 56.02 seconds. Daniela Anschutz of Germany finished in 1:57.49, followed by Chiara Simionato of Italy at 1:57.82.
Oystein Grodum of Norway pulled ahead of Gianni Romme of the Netherlands to take the lead in the men's 1,500m with one heat remaining.
Dutchman Bob de Jong set a track record of 6:19.28, finishing first on the day and retaining third place in the world rankings. Grodum was second at 6:20.94, with Chad Hedrick of the US finishing third at 6:21.01.
AP, PARK CITY, Utah
Andre Florschutz and Torsten Wustlich edged German teammates and defending champions Patric Leitner and Alexander Resch by .012 seconds to win the doubles at the Luge World Championships on Friday.
Sylke Otto led a German sweep for the sixth straight time in the women's competition.
"We have a lot of pressure because everybody expects one or two from us, but it's always a pleasure to stay on top," Florschutz said.
Americans Brian Martin and Mark Grimmette finished second in the doubles for the second straight year and were the only non-Germans on the podium.
Germany has won every women's world championship medal in the event since 1999, but another sweep was in jeopardy Friday night. Defending champion Silke Kraushaar was second after the opening run, but was disqualified for an equipment violation.
Germany still had two of the top three times, but Barbara Niedernhuber clinched the sweep when she came back from the sixth-best opener with the fastest run of the night at 43.977 seconds -- the only time below 44 seconds.
Otto, the 2002 gold Olympic gold medalist on the same track, won it with a combined time of 1:28.056.
AP, GANGNEUNG, South Korea
Fumie Suguri beat out Japanese teammate Yoshie Onda on Saturday to win a pressure-packed women's final at the Four Continents for the third time and qualify for the world championships.
Suguri, a two-time world bronze medalist, had to finish this tournament as the best Japanese woman competitor to qualify for the Japan team at next month's world championships. If she failed to win, Onda would have earned a place.
Japan currently boasts the women's world champion, Shizuka Arakawa, and world's fourth ranked competitor, Miki Ando, the only woman to complete a quadruple jump in competition. Both skipped this competition.
Suguri led the women's event after the short program but Onda skated brilliantly in the freestyle program ahead of her, completing seven triples.
She had a black pants outfit with a lace top as she skated to a tango piece and versions of the opera "Carmen."
Fumie then skated another clean program. Although she had one less triple than Onda, her artistic skills put the free program in her favor.
The Four Continents competition was the second major championship to adopt the new scoring system instituted after the pairs skating scandal in Salt Lake City
Instead of the old 6.0 system, marking is now based on a cumulative total of points gained by jumps, spins and stepwork, and artistic skills. It will also be in place at the world championships at Moscow in March and the 2006 Winter Olympics.
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