Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway raced to his first victory in the Wengen downhill classic to take the lead in the World Cup standings.
Svindal, whose best previous Wengen finish was third in 2014, finally clinched the Lauberhorn race at his 10th attempt with an impressive run on a shortened course.
The two-time downhill world champion and 2010 super-g Olympic champion had a nervous wait after fog twice interrupted the race until the top 30 were able to start - the minimum under World Cup rules to make the result count.
Svindal, starting 18th, posted 1 minute 48.79 seconds to knock a massive 1.52 seconds of Austrian Klaus Kroell’s best time before last year’s winner Hannes Reichelt of Austria reduced the gap to 0.19 seconds.
Kroell was third ahead of the Italian pair Dominik Paris and Christoph Innerhofer.
“It’s better if everyone has the same conditions but Hannes and I certainly raced well,” said Svindal, who now has a career total of 31 World Cup wins.
Reichelt, who has now reached the podium at a Wengen downhill for the fifth year in a row, said: “I saw the run from Kroelli (Kroell) and knew he had been leading for some time, so just thought I would have to take risks.”
The race was reduced from 4,372 to 2,682 metres and interrupted shortly after Svindal and Reichelt finished when fog descended.
Norwegian Kjetil Jansrud, the winner of Friday’s combined, was the first to start when the race resumed but poorer visibility meant he was out of contention.
After three more starters, the race was interrupted again as the fog worsened, threatening to thwart Svindal. Under World Cup regulations half the field, or at least the top 30 racers, needed to start for the results to count.
After a delay of some 30 minutes, conditions improved enough for the race to resume, and Svindal could breathe a sigh of relief when the first 30 were able to start.
Svindal, who was second in Friday’s combined, has now won four of the season’s five downhills.
He advances to 816 points in the overall World Cup standings, 15 ahead of four-time World Cup champion Marcel Hirscher of Austria, who did not race and has the opportunity to recapture the lead in his specialist slalom discipline on Sunday.
Bad Mitterndorf, Austria : Slovenian Peter Prevc captured his maiden ski-flying world championship yesterday.
The newly-crowned Four Hills tournament winner set a Bad Mitterndorf hill record jump of 244 metres before high winds ended the competition ahead of the final jump.
Kenneth Gangnes of Norway was second, with Stefan Kraft of Austria third.
Prevc’s course-best jump bettered the hill record of 243.5m he had set Friday.
The jump was enough to overturn a slim overnight lead enjoyed by Gangnes, with Prevc ending on 640.1 points to the Norwegian’s 636.8, with Kraft on 629.2.
Last year’s winner, Severin Freund of Germany, was sixth, behind fourth-placed Johann Andre Forfang of Norway and fifth-placed Noriaki Kasai of Japan.
A team event is scheduled for Sunday.