Maria Riesch beat Lindsey Vonn in her home town downhill on Wednesday 10 March to keep the women's skiing World Cup title race alive with three races left.
Germany's Riesch, a double Olympic champion last month in Whistler, blazed down the 2.920-kilometres Kandahar piste in 1 minute 34.82 seconds. The Olympic downhill champ Vonn of the US was second in 1:35.30 and retirement-bound Anja Paerson of Sweden third in 1:35.95 minutes.
By winning for the third time in the season and 14th time overall, Riesch kept her World Cup chances but, given a 225-point deficit, they are more of a theoretical nature.
Vonn has 1,571 points and Riesch 1,346, with Paerson out of contention in third place with 982 points. A victory is worth 100 points.
"I have written off the issue. Lindsey would have crash out three times, that is impossible. I have to be realistic. With my two Olympic golds I can live with second place in the World Cup," said the Garmisch-born Riesch, who was delighted with her performance.
"If Lindsey trails by almost half a second then I really had a good run," she said. "It is the world championship piste for next year. It is great to know that I can ski well there."
© dpa
