Erik Guay of Canada won a super-G race yesterday for his second career World Cup victory.
Guay edged early leader Hannes Reichelt of Austria on the 1994 Olympic course in Kvitfjell, Norway, to win his first race since a downhill in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, three years ago.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been on top of the podium,” Guay said. “I took a lot of risks and it paid off ... I’ve had a lot of close calls, fourths and fifths, and I am going to push hard in the last races ... and see what happens.”
The World Cup season ends this week in Garmisch with final races in four events.
Olympic champion Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway and Tobias Gruenenfelder of Switzerland tied for third place.
Didier Cuche of Switzerland, who won Saturday’s downhill, was disqualified. His Swiss teammate and Olympic downhill champion, Didier Defago, lost a ski halfway down the course and crashed.
Reichelt was first out of the starting gate and his time topped the board until Guay came down as No. 18. Guay clocked 1 minute, 31.95 seconds over the 2,574m long Olympiabakken course to beat Reichelt by 0.02 seconds. Svindal and Gruenenfelder clocked 1 minute, 32.26 seconds.
Mario Scheiber of Austria was fifth, only 0.01 seconds behind Svindal and Gruenenfelder.
Reichelt posted his best result in two years.
Michael Walchhofer of Austria placed sixth and kept his lead in super-G World Cup standings before the final race. He now has 300 points, with Svindal second with 254 and Guay third with 231. A win is worth 100 points.
The two Americans who took silver and bronze behind Svindal in the super-G at the Vancouver Olympics did not start.
Silver medalist Bode Miller skipped the two races in Norway, while bronze medalist Andrew Weibrecht dislocated his shoulder in a crash in Saturday’s downhill.
■WOMEN’S SUPER-G
AFP, CRANS MONTANA, SWITZERLAND
Switzerland’s Dominique Gisin bounced back from knee surgery and a spectacular fall at the Winter Olympics to claim a World Cup super-G race in Crans Montana, Switzerland, yesterday.
The 24-year-old stormed to victory ahead of Lindsey Vonn of the US, the overall World Cup leader, and Julia Mancuso, to claim her first super-G success and third career victory.
“I think luck was on my side today,” Gisin said. “There was a lot of wind. It was really a super-G race to go straight down like a downhill and I liked that, I gave it everything.”
Vonn said: “Sometimes you can’t deal with the weather and Dominique had a really great race. I’m happy for her, but also with my second place.”
The American is already assured of winning the World Cup super-G title for the second straight year.
She increased her overall World Cup advantage to 245 points on Germany’s Maria Riesch, who finished eighth yesterday, before the final four events.
Gisin underwent surgery on her right knee two months ago and was the victim of a fall just three weeks ago in the Olympic downhill event.
She proved that was behind her, however, as she deprived Vonn of a double after Saturday’s downhill, finishing 0.15 seconds ahead of the Olympic downhill champion.
Mancuso, winner of two silver medals in Whistler, returned to the podium for the first time since the Olympic Games, but Olympic super-G champion Andrea Fischbacher of Austria had to settle for 12th place.
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