Vald’Isère, France, Dec 18 (AFP/APP): Switzerland’s Corinne Suter started the defence of her World Cup downhill title with an impressive victory in Val d’Isere on Friday, edging out Sofia Goggia.
The 26-year-old Suter, who claimed both the downhill and super-G globes last season, beat Goggia in the first downhill of the campaign by just 0.11 seconds. American Breezy Johnson was only nine hundredths of a second further back in third place, claiming her first-ever podium finish on the circuit. Two-time downhill world champion Ilka Stuhec had to settle for fourth. It was Suter’s third career World Cup win after one in each of the speed events earlier this year.
“I skied really well at the top of the course and in the middle part, much better than in training,” said Suter, who came close to having a leg amputated following a blood infection in June 2018. “I took more direct lines. I felt a lot of pressure for this first downhill of the season, but I’m really happy to have finished the race like that.”
She only picked up her first points of the season last weekend in Courchevel with a 20th-placed finish in a giant slalom, after the two super-G races scheduled for Saint Moritz earlier this month were cancelled due to poor weather conditions. Friday’s race was suspended for around 20 minutes after a nasty fall for Austrian Nicole Schmidhofer, who missed a turn and crashed into the safety net at full speed. She was evacuated on a stretcher.
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