Mayer storms to downhill title

February 10, 2014 | 08:50

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Austria's Matthias Mayer stormed to the blue riband Winter Olympics men's downhill title on Sunday.

Austria's gold medalist Matthias Mayer posing with his medal on the podium during the Men's Alpine Skiing Downhill Medal Ceremony at the Sochi Winter Olympics. (AFP PHOTO/ANTONIN THUILLIER)

SOCHI, Russia: Austria's Matthias Mayer stormed to the blue riband Winter Olympics men's downhill title on Sunday.

Mayer, 23, clocked 2min 06.23sec down the 3.5km-long course at Rosa Khutor, high above the Black Sea, for the first Austrian downhill gold since Fritz Stroebl at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City.

Mayer also bettered his father Helmut's silver-medal showing in the super-G at the Calgary Games in 1998.

"Of course it means a lot to me," an emotional Mayer said. "It's really difficult to go down the track without mistakes."

Italian Christof Innerhofer took silver at just six-hundredths of a second behind while Norway's Kjetil Jansrud claimed bronze a further 0.04sec adrift.

World downhill champion Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway was fourth while another strong favourite, Bode Miller of the United States, was a disappointing eighth.

"I skied hard and well, and that's the most important thing. It just didn't go right," said Miller.

AFP

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