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Svindal and Paerson claim downhill golds

Anja Paerson celebrates after winning the women's downhill on Sunday at the Alpine World Ski Championships in Are, Sweden. PHOTO: AFP

Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal and super Swede Anja Paerson lorded it over their European and US rivals with victories in the world ski championships' downhill.

A great day's racing on Sunday for Scandinavia was punctuated by head-scratching on the part of the US and Austrian men's teams as they failed to make a mark in skiing's most prestigious event.

After Paerson had claimed her third gold here and the seventh of her career to become the first woman to win gold in all five disciplines, Svindal ended Austria's hopes of winning the gold back from defending champion Bode Miller.

Svindal's gold was the first ever for Norway in the event and the nordic giants' first downhill medal since alpine legend Kjetil Andre Aamodt's silver in 2003.

Czech-born Jan Hudec's silver ended the Canadian men's 27-year wait for a downhill medal and veteran Patrik Jaerbyn's bronze handed Sweden their first ever downhill medal since it was first held in 1931.

Jaerbyn, 37, also became the oldest man to win a medal at the world championships.

Svindal's scorching run left Miller down in seventh place and Austria without a podium place in the men's race for the first time since 1997.

Meanwhile Paerson continued her gold run, which could continue once the slalom events begin this week, but came close to being pipped by US skier Lindsey Kildow.

After the 25-year-old Swede held a firm line to clock a winning time of 1:26.89, only a major mistake by Kildow deprived the US women of their first gold in the event since Hilary Lindh won in 1997.

Paerson said: "After Lindsey made that mistake she gained a lot of time in the second half and she gave me a scare."

Paerson, who succeeded absent Croatian star Janica Kostelic, thus added the elusive gold in the only discipline missing from her world championship collection.

Some say she is now on her way to surpassing alpine legend Ingemar Stenmark, who hails from her home town of Taernaby and was most famous for his record of 86 World Cup victories.

But ahead of her bid for more silverware, Paerson said she was still trying to take this achievement in.

"Coming here and winning three gold at my home championships and having the king and queen [of Sweden] seeing it all, I'm speechless. It's more than I can take," she said.
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