Hutter Wins To Boost Hopes Of Retaining World Cup Downhill Title

Kvitfjell, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2025) 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, for her first World Cup podium.

America's recently crowned world champion Breezy Johnson rounded off the podium, 40 hundredths adrift of Hutter.

For Hutter it was the ideal pick-me-up after a difficult world championships, finishing fourth in the downhill and 10th in the super-G.

"It was tough two weeks ago," she said of the world championships.

"This was about finding my mindset again, my feeling again. A smooth line makes me feel fast on skis, and I missed that the last month.

"It is nice to have that feeling back. To have in my head, what I need to go fast. It is nice to be fast again."

Aicher described the run as "fun" and said she would carry on racing all four disciplines.

"I want to," she said.

"I like the change, I like to do everything, I don't have a favourite discipline."

Johnson, whose superstar compatriot Lindsey Vonn finished 13th, said she was pleased with third as she had made several errors.

"Considering all that I risked, and all that I paid for, I think I did pretty well," she said.

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.

Hutter said thoughts of retaining the crystal globe were far from her mind.

"The downhill standing is more important for you guys than for us at this point in the season," she said.

"We still have a second half to the season, so I really want to try every single race -- find high speed, attack and give everything.

"It is not always easy, but today it was a lot of fun and it was a nice day on the downhill track."

Brignone 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.

"It's nice to start the weekend like this, tomorrow we have another chance," said Hutter.

"I'll just try to focus on my skiing. I've done that in training and it has gone really well."