Norway's Jansrud wins super-G in Val Gardena

Norway's Jansrud wins super-G in Val Gardena

Published Dec. 20, 2014 7:54 a.m. ET

VAL GARDENA, Italy (AP) Olympic champion Kjetil Jansrud extended his overall World Cup lead by winning a super-G by a comfortable margin Saturday after narrowly missing victory a day earlier.

The Norwegian clocked 1 minute, 33.87 seconds down the Saslong course for the seventh win of his career and celebrated with a bow to the crowd.

Local favorite Dominik Paris of Italy finished second, 0.46 seconds behind, for his second top-three result in two days. Hannes Reichelt of Austria was third, 0.54 back, to reach the podium here for the first time in 12 years.

On Friday, Jansrud finished second to American skier Steven Nyman in the classic downhill.

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Jansrud has now won four of the six speed races this season, stepping into the leader's position formerly occupied by teammate Aksel Lund Svindal, who is out with an injured Achilles' tendon.

''I think of every day as a new day. I'm not thinking about how my last race is,'' Jansrud said. ''But when I take a step back and see how consistent I am, it's pretty good - pretty weird.''

Jansrud moved 152 points ahead of technical specialist Marcel Hirscher in the overall standings.

''If I want to compete in the overall I need to ski incredibly fast in the speed events, because there are more technical events,'' Jansrud said. ''I'm leading by 150 points now but I'm sure he'll be 50 points ahead after Madonna. ... It's exciting, at least there's a fight.''

The circuit traverses the Gardena pass to nearby Alta Badia for a giant slalom on Sunday then heads to Madonna Di Campiglio for a slalom on Monday night to conclude a series of four races in four days.

This race was originally scheduled for Friday but was flip-flopped with the downhill in an attempt to preserve the course amid warm weather. With no wind, and the temperature just above the freezing level, however, conditions were not a major factor.

Paris moved up from third in the downhill.

''It was a fantastic weekend for me,'' said the Italian, who is from the nearby Val d'Ultimo. ''Today was more of a straight line than a (typical) super-G, which was good for me, because I'm still not so good in the turns.''

Paris' three career wins have all come in downhill, including on the famed Streif course in Kitzbuehel, Austria, two seasons ago.

In the super-G standings, Jansrud holds an 80-point lead over Reichelt, who hadn't done this well here since he was a rookie.

''Back then I was the youngest,'' the 34-year-old Reichelt said. ''Now I'm the oldest. It's funny.''

Vincent Kriechmayr, a 23-year-old Austrian, finished fourth for his best career result, and Christof Innerhofer of Italy, who won two medals at the Sochi Olympics, finished fifth for his best result this season after struggling from chronic back pain.

Olympic downhill champion Matthias Mayer was on pace for the podium before he went wide around a turn toward the end of his run and skied through a gate as he attempted to correct his course.

Nyman skied off course shortly into his run, as did his American teammate Ted Ligety, who will be aiming for his third career win on the Gran Risa course in Sunday's giant slalom. The top American finisher was Olympic silver medalist Andrew Weibrecht of Lake Placid, New York, in 19th.

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Andrew Dampf can be followed at www.twitter.com/asdampf

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