Jansrud wins truncated Kitzbuehel downhill

The Hahnenkamm downhill is the most prestigious speed event of the men's alpine skiing calendar yet the Norwegian had to be content with winning on only half of the Streif course after snow and fog forced organisers to lower the start.

Fastest in practice, Jansrud was still a very legitimate winner and only the second Norwegian after Lasse Kjus in 1991 and 2004 to win in Kitzbuehel.

While the race was truncated, the podium still reflected the current strengths in the discipline with Jansrud, at 58.16 seconds, narrowly beating Friday's Super-G winner Dominik Paris of Italy by 0.02 seconds.

Consistent Frenchman Guillermo Fayed was third.

"I think you can call it my highlight of the season. To win in Kitzbuehel is an objective I had in mind for several years," said Jansrud, who succeeded where compatriot Aksel Lund Svindal has always failed so far.

"If you look at my reaction on the video after Paris's run, it tells more than 10,000 words.

"I was not too happy for the start to be lowered as the top section is where I could make a difference but safety was the priority as well as making sure the race could go ahead," he added.

Already a winner this season in Lake Louise and on the world championship course of Beaver Creek, Jansrud is a solid leader in the discipline's World Cup and the clear favourite for the worlds.

The Norwegian is also still in contention for the big globe, trailing Austria's Marcel Hirscher by 82 points in the overall World Cup standings.

"I scored vital points today as I was sure in Wengen the fight was over and then Marcel zeroed," he said.

"I was mad at myself yesterday for not making the podium in the Super-G, thinking I'd made a great gift to Marcel."

However, Hirscher has two slaloms on home snow before the worlds, in Kitzbuehel on Sunday and in Schladming on Tuesday, to stretch the gap.