Carlo Janka collected the final downhill of the World Cup season in the World Cup Finals at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany to deal the Austrians a double blow, preventing any Austrian male from a downhill win this season and knocking Benjamin Raich out of first place in the race for the World Cup overall title.

And he did it in dramatic fashion as the 20th racer in a field of 24 he overtook Austrian Mario Scheiber by two hundredths of a second. Three skiers later Canadian Erik Guay charged into a tie for third with Patrick Kueng, just seven hundredths from the win.

The top eight racers were within two tenths of a second, among them Didier Cuche who will take the trophy for the downhill title home with him.

“To win by such a small margin you surely need some luck,” said Janka. “This is crazy.”

Crazy or not Janka can now make a real run at the overall title. With three races remaining he holds a 54pt margin over Raich, who declined to race the downhill. Though Janka is a ranking lower than Raich in both super G and GS, he is the Olympic GS gold medalist. Raich holds the apparent advantage in slalom, the final event of the title meet.

Cuche won his third downhill globe, representing the World Cup downhill title, having previously claimed the crown in 2008 and 2007. Among men, only Franz Klammer has won more DH titles.

The Swiss veteran  won three downhills this season, at Lake Louise back in November, at Kitzbuehel and last weekend at Kvitfjell, Norway.

No U.S. skiers participated. Bode Miller elected not to attend the finals, Andrew Weibrecht and Marco Sullivan are injured.

The men raced in cloudy conditions, and Swiss papers indicate Janka may have been racing with a cloud over his disposition as well, saying he may have been inspired to beat the Austrians after an attempt to get him disqualified at Kvitfjell due to a false start.

Swiss coach Sepp Brunner is quoted as saying, “The Austrians wanted to confuse Carlo with their damn stupid antics. Luckily, he has once again been kind of cool.”

It was the first time Austrian men have not won a single downhill in a World Cup season since 1992.

“I’ve got my big goal,” Janka said, “with the Olympic gold medal in giant slalom. And here in Garmisch is just the snow that best pleases my skiing style – not too soft and not too icy – beautifully compact. Good as it gets.”

Though he was qualified to race the downhill, American Ted Ligety elected not to race. The current lead of the GS standings he is definitely looking at trying to secure that title first and foremost, though he is on the start list for Thursday’s super G.

“I didn’t feel like I was going to be strong enough in downhill to make it worthwhile,” he said, adding that the GS crown would help salvage what he considers a disappointing season.

“It would be awesome (to win the GS title) it would make a kind of disappointing season a little more worthwhile for sure, so I’d be happy to seal that up. I feel like this season no body has skied very well in GS. No body has stepped it up. It’s nice to win the title, but the title winner should be winning more races than I did, or anybody has.”

Ligety also said he felt his biggest challengers were Max Blardone and Marcel Hirscher and not Benjamin Raich and said he’d need to put down two good runs to claim the title.
“I mean 43 points is a nice lead, but it’s not that sweet of a lead.”

The men’s GS is scheduled for Friday.

photos by GEPA

The SCOOP
By Hank McKee

Equipment
Men’s Downhill, World Cup Finals, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, March 10, 2010.
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Janka, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
2 Scheiber, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3 Guay, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3 Kueng, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
5 Grugger, Head/Head/Head
6 Heel, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
7 Osborne-Paradis, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
8 Cuche, Head/Head/Head
9 Walchhofer, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
10 Kostelic, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer

Men’s Downhill, World Cup Finals, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, March 10, 2010. … It is the 31st of 34 races on the men’s 2010 World Cup schedule. … The eighth of eight downhills. … It is the first race of Finals and the 83rd World Cup held at least in part at Garmisch.

It is the seventh career World Cup win for Carlo Janka and his first at Garmisch. … It is his third career Cup downhill win. … It is his fifth Cup win of the season plus a gold medal in GS at the Olympics. … It is his third DH win of the season.

It is the 12th career World Cup podium for Mario Scheiber and the eighth time he has finished a Cup race in second place without collecting a win. … It is his second podium result of the season having also placed second in DH at Val Gardena Dec. 19. … It is the second time he has finished 2nd in a World Cup DH at Garmisch, the previous Feb. 19, 2005 in which he was .09 behind Michael Walchhofer.

It is the 12th career World Cup podium for Eric Guay and his third at Garmisch having won a DH at the site Feb. 24, 2007 and finishing third in a DH the previoius day. … It is his second podium of the season and second in four days having won the super G at Kvitfjell March 7.

It is the first career Cup podium for Patrick Kueng his previous best result being 11th scored at Lake Louise in November and at Wengen in January.

It is the 17th career top seven placing for Manuel Osborne-Paradis. … snd the second time he has finished seventh at Garmisch matching his result from 2007.

The top 15 racers were within the same second. … Top eight within two tenths. … Didier Cuche (8th in race) wins the downhill title 528-448 over Janka. … Werner Heel (6th in race) finishes third with 292pts and Osborne-Paradis fourth with 281. … Top U.S. skier is Bode Miller (did not race) in 17th with 110pts. … Janka overtakes Benjamin Raich (did not race) for the lead of the World Cup overall standings with three races remaining 1073-1019. … Cuche is third at 878 and Aksel Lund Svindal (12th in race) fourth at 823pts. … These are the only men with a mathematical chance to be crowned overall champion. … American Ted Ligety is ranked seventh with 670pts and Canadian Osborne-Paradis 14th with 429.