Nyman flies to first win

It was the 24-year-old"s first World Cup victory, with his previous best performance coming in the last downhill event at Beaver"s Creek where he finished 3rd.

Switzerland's Didier Cuche who was fastest in downhill was second, with Fritz Strobel getting Austria's first downhill podium position of the season in third.

Miller who won in Beavers Creek, and who also claimed the Super-G here yesterday, was on course to break his team-mate's run before he lost balance momentarily two-thirds of the way down his run, which saw him lose a big chunk of time, and finish only 14th.

Another American, Marco Sullivan, was the first competitor to lay down a marker, as he clocked a time of 1:56.96 after starting fourth.

That would eventually be good enough for fourth place, but he was overtaken by Nyman, who produced a stunning run of 1.56.52 to put him 0.44 ahead of Sullivan.

Nyman then had to watch all the big name contenders challenge his time, but with the exception of Cuche, nobody really got close.

The Swiss man's run was nervous viewing for Nyman however, as every split brought Cuche closer to first place.

However, his time of 1:56.54 left him just 0.02 beyond Nyman and he had to settle for second.

Strobel's time of 1:56.95 which was good enough for third, saved what looked on course to be another poor day for Austria.

Hermann Maier posted the next best Austrian time of 1:57.16 but that saw him finish only eight, with the likes of Michael Walchhofer (16th), Klaus Kroell (22th), Cristopher Gruber (24th), and Hans Grugger (31st) all struggling again.

Marco Buechel of Liechtenstein, who won in Lake Lousie and here last year, was seventh.