Svindal strikes in Kitzbuehel super-G

KITZBUEHEL, Austria (AFP) –

Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal competes during the men’s World Cup Super-G in Kitzbuehel on January 25, 2013. Svindal claimed victory in the men’s World Cup super-G, his maiden win on the notoriously tough Hahnenkamm mountain.

Norwegian speed king Aksel Lund Svindal claimed victory in the men’s World Cup super-G on Friday, his maiden win on the notoriously tough Hahnenkamm mountain.

Svindal, reigning Olympic champion in the discipline, timed 1min 14.48sec to finish 0.13sec ahead of Austrian Matthias Mayer, with Italian Christof Innerhofer completing the podium at 0.40sec.

“Oh yeah!! Kitzbuhel!!! #FisAlpine,” Svindal tweeted.

It was the 30-year-old Norwegian’s third super-G victory of the season after wins in Lake Louise and Val Gardena, and the 20th of his career.

The result saw him move up to 847 points in the overall World Cup standings, now just 88pts adrift of Austrian leader Marcel Hirscher, who did not race.

Svindal has been in the top six in each of the last three super-G races in Kitzbuehel, including two podiums, but he has never won there in this or any other discipline.

After pegging early leader Mayer in the top section of the 2.15km-long Streifalm course, with an average gradient of 26 percent and a maximum of 76, Svindal showed all his power through the middle section.

Hitting a top speed of 128.3kph coming into the bottom third of the course, the 30-year-old kept his form on the final bone-rattling traverse to edge Mayer by 0.13sec.

It was otherwise a disappointing day’s racing for the Austrian team, with pre-race favourites Hannes Reichelt and Klaus Kroell — who has twice finished third in the downhill here and triumphed in the 2009 super-G — finishing 14th and 16th respectively.

Local favourite Benjamin Raich, the two-time world champion and double Olympic gold medallist, also took to the gate for his 400th World Cup race.

The Austrian, who will be 35 next month, has 36 victories and 90 podium finishes in his career, as well as finishing in the top 10 a remarkable 214 times.

But there was to be no addition to that illustrious record as the 2006 overall World Cup champion and five-time runner-up clocked 1:16.32, 1.84sec off the pace.

“With the 400th I’m happy of course, not with this result,” said Raich. “I’m happy I’ve been around for so long and actually it’s been good most of the time.”

The Hahnenkamm races continue with the feted downhill on Saturday and a slalom on Sunday.

None of the races will feature the so-called “King of the Streif” — record five-time downhill winner Didier Cuche of Switzerland — out of the running following his retirement from competition last season.

Swiss skier Didier Defago, the only past winner of Kitzbuehel’s prestigious downhill (in 2009) to be in the running this year, finished a disappointing 29th at 2.01sec in the super-G after a horrendous mistake at the top of the course.