DStv Channel 403 Saturday, 30 November 2024

Kilde wins at Val Gardena to extend World Cup downhill lead

Aleksander Aamodt Kilde is the reigning men's World Cup downhill champion
AFP | Tiziana FABI

Aleksander Aamodt Kilde continued his dominance of alpine skiing downhill racing on Saturday after winning at Val Gardena to claim his fourth victory of the season.

Reigning downhill champion Kilde finished top of the pile with a time of two minutes and 2.35 seconds in the Italian Dolomites. 

His third win in four downhill races extended to 89 points his lead in the discipline over Marco Odermatt.

The 30-year-old Kilde finished 0.35sec ahead of unfortunate French veteran Johan Clarey, who was denied his first ever World Cup win at the age of 41.

Clarey, who took downhill silver at the last Winter Olympics, was hoping for a historic win on the weekend his country contend the football World Cup final after topping the times with 13 runs completed.

But he finished second, 0.07sec ahead of third-placed Italian Mattia Casse who found his way to his first ever World Cup podium late on.

World Cup champion Odermatt was 0.92sec off the pace in seventh, allowing Norwegian Kilde to also cut his Swiss rival's lead in the overall standings to 111 points.

He was bumped off the podium after four later skiers including Casse knocked him down from third.

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