Kriechmayr edges Swiss favourite Feuz to win World Cup downhill
Benjamin Thomsen top Canadian skier, finishing 14th
It takes a special run to beat Switzerland's best skier Beat Feuz on his home snow. Vincent Kriechmayr found it Saturday to win a World Cup downhill.
Austria's Kriechmayr was 0.14 seconds faster than Feuz on the storied Lauberhorn hill, finishing the longest World Cup course in 2 minutes, 28.36 seconds.
Feuz, the pre-race favourite, had won each downhill in Switzerland for the past three years, including the 2017 world title at St. Moritz and this classic Wengen race last year.
"It was nearly perfect," Kriechmayr said of his performance. "He [Feuz] is the best downhill skier in the last years and it's nice to beat him."
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde was third, 0.26 behind, after leading Kriechmayr by 0.01 at the final time split. That pushed Kilde's Norway teammate Aksel Lund Svindal into fourth.
The top Canadian finisher was Benjamin Thomsen, who finished 14th with a time of 2:29.75.
Parity clear in men's downhill
Kriechmayr is the fifth different winner in five World Cup men's downhills this season, and he rose to second in the standings behind Feuz. The 27-year-old Austrian is now fourth in the overall standings, led by a wide margin by his teammate Marcel Hirscher, who is favoured to win the slalom on Sunday.
Switzerland's signature Alpine ski race was run on the full 4.27-kilometre track under perfect blue skies on a crisp, cold day.
WATCH | Kriechmayr claims World Cup downhill gold in Wengen:
Race day began with the traditional flypasts around the picturesque course and surrounding Eiger, Moench and Jungfrau mountains by Swiss air force display jets.
With an icier snow surface than in training runs, several skiers failed to complete the stamina-sapping race or crashed in the finish area.
Sixth-placed Emanuel Buzzi was airlifted from the hill by helicopter after crashing into padded safety barriers in front of the course-side television presenters. The Italian was given an intravenous drip during lengthy treatment on the snow, though waved to the crowd as he left on a stretcher.
Buzzi sustained a fracture in his right knee and is expected to return to Italy for surgery, race officials later reported.
American Steven Nyman crashed at the fastest part of the course, around 140 kph (87mph) on a straight section, when the edge of his left ski caught an icy bump.
"I was coming down the Haneggschuss thinking 'I'm feeling good' and wham. I had no thought of anything. It just happened," said Nyman, who bloodied his face from biting his tongue.
Kriechmayr's fourth career win came 14 months after his first, in a super-G at Beaver Creek, Colorado. His other two wins were last March in the World Cup finals meeting at Are, Sweden, which hosts the world championships next month.