(Reuters) – Corinne Suter boosted her confidence ahead of the winter Olympics in Beijing after a flawless run saw her win a World Cup downhill race in Germany’s Garmisch-Partenkirchen on Saturday.
The 27-year old Swiss, the reigning world downhill champion who is yet to win an Olympic medal, stormed down the course in 1:40.74 minutes, 0.51 seconds ahead of second-placed compatriot Jasmine Fleury.
Austrian Cornelia Huetter finished third, 0.78 seconds off the pace. The podium finishers took advantage of the absence of overall World Cup downhill leader Sofia Goggia, who faces a race against time to recover from injury in time for the Olympics.
Italy’s Goggia sprained her left knee when she crashed out of a super-G on home soil in Cortina d’Ampezzo on Sunday after losing her balance in the final section of a treacherous course.
Suter, who moved up to second place in the overall downhill standings — on 331 points behind Goggia who has 400 — was delighted after shining on the speedy Kandahar course.
“It’s very important for me because I had a difficult start to the season and now I’ve found my way as I am getting better all the time,” she told Eurosport.
“I felt great today from the first gate and although I’ve got the Olympics on my mind, I tried to keep a clear head and ski freely.”
The women’s season continues with a super-G at the same venue on Sunday before it breaks up for the Feb. 4-20 Beijing games.
American Mikaela Shiffrin leads the overall World Cup standings on 1026 points, 17 ahead of second-placed Slovakian Petra Vlhova, while third-placed Goggia has 769 points.
(Writing by Zoran Milosavljevic; Editing by Christina Fincher)
