Cuche glides to downhill ski title

Didier Cuche won the downhill for the first time this season Keystone

Swiss skier Didier Cuche won the penultimate mens' World Cup downhill of the season on Saturday to clinch his first title in the event.

Cuche raced down Olympiabakken course in Norway in 1:28.51, edging Canada’s Erik Guay by 0.06 of a second. It was Cuche’s first downhill win of the season.

Marco Büchel of Liechtenstein was third in 1:28.94. Michael Walchhofer of Austria, the defending World Cup downhill champion, was fourth in 1:28.84.

The victory left the Swiss, who has had a strong season with a string of podium finishes, 168 points ahead of Büchel with just one race remaining.

This competition, worth 100 points, will take place in Lenzerheide in Switzerland next week.

Saturday’s victory is Cuche’s first major title in more than ten years of racing and the first victory in the discipline for a Swiss in three years.

The start of Saturday’s race was delayed nearly an hour because of poor visibility due to foggy and snowy conditions at Kvitfjell, site of the men’s Olympic alpine ski races at the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics.

Organisers made the decision after 11 skiers had completed the course, and at one point it appeared that the race would be cancelled. It was restarted when the weather was clearer.

Keeping his nerve

“I nearly started celebrating when they were about to cancel the race,” said Cuche. “It was not easy to refocus when they decided to continue the competition, but I was able to and I’m really happy with the way I skied and kept my nerve.

“It’s a great feeling after all the fights I’ve had over the last two years. I’m glad to be back to show that I can still ski really fast.”

An accident in 2005 during training the Swiss resort of Adelboden left the 32-year-old from Neuchâtel with a serious knee injury. But he has since bounced back.

“I never expected it [winning the title] before the season began but I knew after Beaver Creek that I can really be fast the whole season,” said Cuche, who was second in the Colorado resort in December.

Cuche also won a bronze in the giant slalom at last month’s World Ski Championships in Åre, Sweden.

It was only the second major championship medal of his career after the super-G silver at the 1998 Nagano Olympics.

swissinfo with agencies

Men’s rankings

Men’s rankings in the downhill
1. Didier Cuche SUI
2. Marco Büchel LIE
3. Erik Guay CAN
4. Peter Fill ITA
5. Michael Walchhofer AUT
6. Andrej Jerman SVN
7. Bode Miller USA
8. Mario Scheiber AUT
9. Manuel Osborne-Paradis CAN
10. Steven Nyman USA