Carlo Janka won the final downhill of the season yesterday to take the overall World Cup lead with three races remaining.
The Olympic giant slalom champion edged Mario Scheiber of Austria, meaning that the once powerful Austrian team failed to win a downhill race all season for the first time since 1991-1992.
Patrick Kueng of Switzerland and Erik Guay of Canada shared third place.
The Swiss skiier’s third downhill victory of the season gave him a 54-point leader over Benjamin Raich of Austria in the race for the overall title. Raich did not compete in the downhill and will look for his chances in the giant slalom and slalom. A victory is worth 100 points.
Janka covered the 3,300m Kandahar course in one minute, 58.45 seconds. Scheiber was .02 seconds behind and Kueng and Guay, who won a super-G race in Kvitfjell, Norway, on Sunday, were both .07 behind.
“In the first half of the race it was not perfect surely, but I made no mistakes at the bottom half,” Janka said after his seventh career victory.
One of the late starters at No. 20, Janka said he benefited from better conditions.
“I had better visibility,” he said.
Didier Cuche of Switzerland had already secured the downhill title and finished eighth yesterday skiing with a sore back.
“I almost didn’t make it to the start,” said Cuche, who needed a painkilling shot.
Janka said the overall title would be a fine end to an already good season.
“I knew that this was the event where I needed to win some points. The race was very tight and I was the lucky one, I was on the right side of the clock,” he said.
“It’s still [on] the cards, the course suits me and I think I can be fast tomorrow as well [in the super-G],” Janka said. “These are the races I needed to do well in because I will be behind Raich in the technical events” — giant slalom and the slalom that conclude the season.
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