KITZBUEHEL, Austria (Reuters) - Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde powered to victory in the classic Kitzbuehel World Cup downhill on Friday, beating French veteran Johan Clarey by 0.42 seconds.
A great day for the French team was completed when Blaise Giezendanner, running 43rd, produced a spectacular run to push Austria’s Matthias Mayer out of third place.
Overall World Cup leader Marco Odermatt of Switzerland finished in fifth place at what is the marquee event of the ski season.
Kilde’s win, in 1:55.92 on a shortened course, wasthe 20-year-old’s sixth of the World Cup season and he will have a chance of another in Sunday’s scheduled second race - the final downhill before the Beijing Winter Games next month.
The Norwegian takes over on top of the downhill World Cup standings, moving ahead of Italian Dominik Paris.
Second-place was an outstanding result for 41-year-old Clarey, his ninth career World Cup podium coming 12 years after his first.
The Frenchman has never won a World Cup race but this was his fourth podium finish at Kitzbuehel.
Austria were left without a podium finisher at their biggest event although late runner Christian Walder was in contention for a top three finish but fell near the end of his race.
Marcel Hirscher, gold medallist in giant slalom and combined in the 2018 Olympics and now retired, fulfilled his dream of taking on the Hahnenkamm.