Cuche clinches downhill trophy as season-ender is scrapped

11 March 2008

BORMIO, Italy – Didier Cuche clinched the downhill World Cup trophy the second straight year on Tuesday because the last race in the discipline set for Wednesday had to be scrapped over training cancellations.

The Swiss Cuche won the speed event standings with 584 points in a tight race with American overall leader Bode Miller, who had 579 points. Austrian Michael Walchhofer was a distant third with 407 points.

Cuche won just one downhill compared to Miller’s three, but was more consistent with five further podium finishes – four second place results and one third place.

A downhill race requires at least one mandatory training run, but soft snow on Monday and overnight snowfall Tuesday made no action possible.

As a result, the World Cup finals are reduced to nine races Wednesday-Saturday and a team event Sunday. Wednesday will now only see the women’s downhill, after a training run Monday.

Lindsey Vonn of the US is assured of the women’s downhill crown and Italy’s Denise Karbon has won the giant slalom trophy. The combined titles went to Miller and German Maria Riesch.

Up for grabs are still the overall crowns (leaders Miller and Vonn), the men’s super-G (Cuche), giant slalom (Ted Ligety, US), slalom (Jean-Baptiste Grange, France), and the women’s super-G (Riesch) and slalom (Marlies Schild, Austria).