Kvitfjell, Norway---Austrian Hannes Reichelt won Saturday's World Cup downhill in Kvitfjell as home favourite Kjetil Jansrud could only manage a seventh place finish.
Recently crowned world super-G champion Reichelt, starting with bib number 20, came down the 2.6km-long Olympiabakken piste in 1min 29.65sec for his 11th victory on the World Cup circuit, four of them coming this season.
The win for Reichelt, who finished 0.30sec ahead of Canada's Manuel Osborne-Paradis in second, means the race for the discipline's crystal globe will go down to the wire.
Long-time leader Werner Heel of Italy, who had been first out of the gate, completed the podium, at 0.38sec.
France's Guillermo Fayed was fourth at 0.40sec, with Switzerland's Patrick Kueng just one-hundredth of a second away.
Jansrud, who won super-G gold and downhill bronze at last year's Sochi Winter Olympics, was at 0.54sec, behind American Travis Ganong (+0.48) in fifth. In all, 22 racers got within a second of Reichelt.
The Norwegian remains top of the World Cup downhill standings on 505 points, but Reichelt's victory has left the Austrian just 20pts behind, with the discipline's crystal globe to now be decided at the season's finale in the French resort of Meribel on March 18.
Jansrud, however, in turn closed the gap on Austrian Marcel Hirscher (1,128pts) in the overall standings, having moved up to 976pts.
AFP
