By Liam Morgan

Kjetil Jansrud earned a close victory to cement his second place on the overall World Cup leaderboard ©Getty ImagesNorway's Kjetil Jansrud claimed a narrow win in the men's downhill event at the International Ski Federation (FIS) Alpine Skiing World Cup event at Kitzbuehel, Austria, to cement his second-place position in the overall standings.


In a race that had to be shortened owing to foggy conditions, Jansrud crossed the line just 0.02 seconds ahead of nearest challenger Dominik Paris, who won yesterday's Super-G event, and Guillermo Fayed finished on the podium for the second time in his career as he took third.

The result leaves Jansrud on 834 points, 223 points ahead of third-placed Alex Pinturault but 82 behind current leader Marcel Hirscher.

"We are tough guys and everyone wanted to start from the top as it makes a huge difference when the start is lowered," Jansrud said.

"But this is not the first time this happens, races get lowered not only in Kitzbuehel and the most important thing in the end is that we did have a race and that safety came first."

The race was desperately close to being called off altogether but eventually a shorter course was decided where skiers had to adapt to a downhill that was shorter than a minute rather than the usual two minutes duration, and this seemed to affect Paris, who was a bit slow finding his speed in the early stages.

He did however make up some time but he couldn't quite keep pace with Jansrud, who now sits top of the downhill and Super-G season rankings.

In the women's event, Lara Gut sent the home crowd into raptures as she won her second event of the season so far.

Home favourite Lara Gut sealed a confident win in the women's downhill event in front of a raucous Swiss crowd ©Getty ImagesHome favourite Lara Gut sealed a confident win in the women's downhill event in front of a raucous Swiss crowd ©Getty Images



In front of thousands of Swiss fans in St. Moritz, Gut completed the course in 1:43.82, 0.32 seconds in front of Austria's Anna Fenninger, while Hungary's Edit Miklos finished third which was her first career podium.

"I finished close to the podium in GS with a fourth place in 2012, but yes I think it was time to be back on the podium," Gut said.

"It's a great start to the weekend for me and to have three Swiss racers in the top 7 makes it even better."

American star Lindsey Vonn, who made history when she claimed a record-breaking 63rd Alpine Skiing World Cup win in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy last monday, could only manage 23rd place after she made a crucial error, although she remains top of the women's downhill leaderboard, 79 points ahead of Fenninger.

The World Cup event continues tomorrow with the men's slalom followed by the women's Super-G.

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