Swiss veteran Didier Cuche, fresh from announcing his imminent retirement, ensured a dream ending on the toughest downhill of the World Cup circuit.
Cuche stormed to a convincing victory on the Hahnenkamm, his 19th World Cup victory and fifth success in the demanding downhill that was cut short because of snow and low-lying fog.
The 37-year-old Cuche bettered the previous record for downhill wins on the mountain he jointly held with Austrian ski legend Franz Klammer.
Photo: EPA
“He’s the king of Kitzbuehel now,” 1976 Olympic downhill champion Klammer said of Cuche, who could only finish 15th in Wengen last weekend.
Having won the World Cup downhill title in four of the past five seasons, Cuche remains in contention for a record-equaling fifth globe this year and his victory saw him move into second place in the discipline standings behind Beat Feuz.
Cuche, who announced this week that he will retire at the end of the season, timed 1 minute, 13.28 seconds.
His time was 0.24 seconds ahead of Austria’s Romed Baumann, with another Austrian, Klaus Kroell, a further 0.06 seconds adrift.
Austrian Joachim Puchner missed out on the podium by just 0.06 seconds, while France’s Johan Clarey finished fifth.
Up-and-coming Swiss racer Feuz, winner of last week’s downhill on home snow in Wengen, clocked 1 minute, 13.73 seconds after a strong bottom half to finish sixth.
American veteran Bode Miller, a former two-time World Cup overall champion, did well to avoid a nasty fall after showing immense strength to drag back a ski of which he momentarily lost control.
However, the error saw Miller finish 1.35 seconds adrift in 29th.
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in
RSS