Swiss veteran Didier Cuche ended a long wait to add the Chamonix World Cup downhill to his victory list with a technically brilliant winning performance in France yesterday.
The 36-year-old had claimed his first downhill win of the season last week in the Austrian resort of Kitzbuehel and he produced another near flawless performance to claim his first win on the legendary Verte des Houches run.
Italian Dominik Paris finished second, with Austrian Klaus Kroll in third.
The last time a Swiss won a men’s downhill race in Chamonix was in 1975 when Walter Vesti led a Swiss podium sweep in the shadow of Mont Blanc.
However, with Bode Miller of the US, second last week in Kitzbuehel, taking a short break, Cuche was widely tipped to carry his sparkling form over to the legendary French race known as the “Kandahar.”
Paris set the early pace, the Italian flying first out of the gate to set a time of 1 minute, 59.58 seconds, which many more experienced racers failed to better.
Croatia’s overall World Cup leader Ivica Kostelic finished more than 1.5 seconds off the pace, Canadian Erik Guay was 1.33 seconds behind, while Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal flattered to deceive with a time that was 0.89 seconds behind Paris.
Of the Austrian contingent, only Kroll got close to dislodging 22-year-old Paris from top spot, although he finished second 0.21 seconds to get a sniff at a podium place.
A delay of about 20 minutes preceded Cuche’s run after Canadian Manuel Osborne-Paradis had to be airlifted to hospital following a heavy crash three-quarters of the way into his run.
The 26-yeard-old was racing toward a potential podium place finish, only 0.04 seconds off the pace of Paris when disaster struck.
One of the Canadian’s skis got caught in the snow and in trying to redress himself, Osborne-Paradis went flying into the air, landing on his back and then coming to a halt in the safety netting further down the slope. He was placed on a stretcher and airlifted to a local hospital.
Cuche was always on course for victory from the moment he exited the gate.
He shaved over half a second off Paris’ time by the second time check and gave the thousands of ski fans plenty of reason to cheer with a gliding master class, which, in turn, saw him extend his lead in the World Cup downhill standings.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but