Feuz Wins Alpine World Cup Downhill In Beaver Creek

Los Angeles, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Dec, 2018 ) :Reigning World Cup downhill champion Beat Feuz led a Swiss one-two ahead of Mauro Caviezel in the alpine World Cup men's downhill at Beaver Creek, Colorado, on Friday.

Feuz clocked 1min 13.59sec on the Birds of Prey course, where snow limited visibility and wind prompted organizers to shorten the course by lowering the position of the start gate.

Germany's Thomas Dressen crashed heavily in the flat light that made it hard to judge the nuances of the terrain, careening into the catch fencing before he was stretchered off the mountain and taken to hospital with what organizers said was a knee injury.

Feuz, 31, was already atop the leaderboard by then, his storming run seizing the lead from Olympic champion Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway who had set the early pace with a run of 1:13.67.

The Norwegian, who owns six career wins at Beaver Creek, was soon pushed to the third step of the podium by Caviezel, whose 1:13.66 was just enough to earn second place.

Feuz's victory was his 11th World Cup race win, his eighth in downhill.

Caviezel notched his second podium finish in three races this season, while for Svindal, his third-place finish demonstrated that there is plenty left in the tank for a skier who said as recently as October that he was "50-50" as to whether he would return this season because nagging trouble with his chronically injured right knee.

Svindal has also been hampered by a hand injury suffered in training this month. He had stitches removed from his thumb on Thursday, but said with metal pins in his hand he still can't grip a ski pole but just taped it to his hand.

The victory propelled Feuz to the top of the downhill standings with 140 points, 20 more than Austrian Max Franz who won the first downhill of the young season at Lake Louise last week but settled for 13th on Friday.

Austria's Vincent Kriechmayr tops the overall standings with 175 points, followed by Feuz on 166 and Caviezel on 147.

Competition continues on Saturday with a super-G, with a giant slalom scheduled for Sunday.