Alpine Skiing World Championships: Corinne Suter blows pack away to end Swiss 32-year Downhill wait

Updated 13/02/2021 at 11:31 GMT

Switzerland is having itself a tremendous World Championships in Cortina. After seeing Lara Gut-Behrami lift the Super G title they now have a Downhill champion in the shape of Corinne Suter, who produced an excellent run on Saturday for her gold medal to go along with silver in the Super G. Gut-Behrami continued her fine form with a bronze so the Swiss women have four out of six medals so far.

Switzerland's Corinne Suter reacts as she crosses the finish line in the Women's Downhill on February 13, 2021 during the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italian Alps

Image credit: Getty Images

Corinne Suter produced a stunning Downhill run to take the gold medal at the Alpine Skiing World Championships on Saturday.

Suter, who finished second in the Super G behind her compatriot Lara Gut-Behrami flew out of the gates as the seventh rider to tackle the course.

Suter didn’t put a foot wrong as she finished with a time of 1:34.27, a pace that no other skier could match.

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Corinne Suter takes gold in Downhill with blistering run

Her victory means she is the first Swiss woman to win the Downhill world title since Maria Walliser in Vail all the way back in 1989.

Suter was interviewed in the winner's pen after 20 riders and she was humble in her reluctance to discuss her imminent gold medal with plenty of skiers still to come, one of the weird quirks of the speed races, but she admitted she was pleased with her run.

“My run was really good," Suter said. "I did what I wanted, what I need to give me the space and take the speed with me and I’m super happy with my run today

“I think more than I first thought because I always knew in Downhill there are more chances and then I started with the silver medal Super G this was already amazing for me.

“Today was a new today and I felt really good in the morning and I knew I had done everything I can.

Finishing in second was rising German star Kira Weidle, the 24-year-old was one of the few to really attack the course in the same vigour as Suter and ended just 0.20 off the winner for her first World Championships medal after finishing 13th two years ago in Are.

“It’s still kind of unbelievable, I’m just happy," Weidle told Eurosport in the press zone afterwards.

Rising star Weidle takes silver at Cortina

“I was hoping for a medal and it was my biggest goal today and while I was racing I felt really good, no big mistakes, so I knew I could be fast, just that Corinne was faster!"

Gut-Behrami, the dominant force in Super G at the moment, skied well but had to settle for bronze, which is her best result at the worlds since 2015.

Lara Gut-Behrami adds Downhill bronze to Super G gold

The Italian team, missing the unstoppable force of Sofia Goggia, could only muster an eight-placed finish as their best performance thanks to Elena Curtoni.

Goggia had won the last four Downhill races in the World Cup but was ruled out of the championships after suffering a knee injury.

Skier-snowboarder hybrid Ester Ledecka put in a solid performance and narrowly missed out on a medal as she finished in fourth to go along with the same standing in the Super G.