Hutter wins to boost hopes of retaining World Cup downhill title / Photo: Geir Olsen - NTB/AFP
Hutter wins to boost hopes of retaining World Cup downhill title
Austria's Cornelia Hutter remained firmly in the hunt to retain her World Cup downhill title as she won the latest race in the discipline at Kvitfjell on Friday.
The 32-year-old recorded her ninth career World Cup victory, the fourth in the downhill, timing 1min 31.46sec on the course used at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics.
Germany's Emma Aicher maintained her decent form from the world championships, the 21-year-old finishing second, 15 hundredths off the winner's time.
America's recently crowned world champion Breezy Johnson rounded off the podium, 40 hundredths adrift of Hutter.
Hutter's victory leaves her in third spot, just 26 points off downhill series leader Federica Brignone.
The Italian was fifth on Friday, with three races remaining of the campaign.
Brignone's compatriot Sofia Goggia, fourth on Friday, is in second spot but only two points ahead of Hutter.
Brignone, though, increased her lead to 213 points in the race for the overall World Cup title, over Swiss veteran Lara Gut-Behrami, who was 12th on Friday, with 10 races to go.
Gut-Behrami, 33, gets a chance to strike back quickly, with another downhill on Saturday and a super-G on Sunday.
S.Martin--RTC
