VAL GARDENA, Italy (Reuters) – Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal stormed to his second World Cup downhill win of the season after destroying the field at Val Gardena on Saturday.
Svindal, starting 13th, charged down the course in one minute 57 seconds to win by 0.59 seconds from his compatriot Kjetil Jansrud while Austria’s Max Franz was third.
The 34-year-old, overall World Cup champion in 2007 and 2009, finished third in Lake Louise and won in Beaver Creek in this season’s previous downhills despite suffering the after-effects of major knee surgery in January.
Svindal said his knee was still restricting the amount of training he could do.
“It was a good run and I’m getting better all the time… I was just trying not to think about it and concentrate on the race,” he told Swiss television. “On Monday and Tuesday, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to race.”
(Writing by Brian Homewood in Bern, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
