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Adrien Theaux beats Aksel Lund Svindal to win men's downhill in Norway
Adrien Theaux of France competes during the FIS World Cup men's downhill competition in Kvitfjell, Norway, Saturday, March 2, 2013. Theaux placed first (AP Photo/NTB Scanpix, Cornelius Poppe) NORWAY OUT
KVITFJELL, Norway - Adrien Theaux of France earned his second career World Cup victory Saturday by narrowly beating home favourite Aksel Lund Svindal in a downhill.
Theaux mastered windy conditions to race down the steep 2.641-kilometre course in 1 minute, 29.10 seconds and edge Svindal by 0.19 seconds. Klaus Kroell of Austria was 0.50 seconds back in third. The Frenchman's only previous win came in March 2011 in Switzerland.
Saturday's race had been threatened by stormy weather coming in over Scandinavia, but went on as planned as the gusts over the Kvittfjell course were not as strong as feared.
The winds were still strong enough to make it difficult for the racers, Theaux said.
"I think the trick was to try to keep your tuck as much as possible and avoid catching more wind than necessary," Theaux said. "I am really happy also as this has been my first downhill this year without mistakes, everything came together today. Conditions were not easy but all of us on the podium are among the top downhill skiers so I am happy to be sharing this result with such good skiers."
Svindal's second-place finish meant he made up some ground on overall World Cup leader Marcel Hirscher and now trails the Austrian by 129 points. The Norwegian also extended his lead over Kroell in the downhill standings — but is still looking for his first victory in Kvittfjell despite having six career podium finishes here.
"I would obviously like to win here someday and I know it will come sooner or later, but for that I need to just ski faster so today this is a good second place," Svindal said. "I do have a lot of podiums here but somehow there is just always someone that is better on this slope."
The downhill is followed by a super-G on Sunday.
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