Hoefl-Riesch wins downhill as Vonn clinches discipline title

Feb 18, 2012, 10:13 GMT

Krasnaya Polyana, Russia - Germany's Maria Hoefl-Riesch won the World Cup downhill at Krasnaya Polyana Saturday while Lindsey Vonn of the United States sealed the downhill title for the season.

Hoefl-Riesch posted 1 minute 49.17 seconds to beat Austria's Elisabeth Goergl by 0.43 seconds, with overall World Cup leader Vonn third on the women's debut at the 2014 Olympic course near Sochi.

'I didn't expect this today,' Hoefl-Riesch told Germany's ZDF television. 'Lindsey had dominated training and I thought podium was the target but that even that would be difficult.

'The upper part of the course is very difficult and I don't think anyone got through there without making a mistake.

'I had absolutely no feeling of whether I was fast or not. I just thought 'hopefully you are there or thereabouts' and then I was six-tenths of a second up (on Vonn) so I was really jubilant.'

It was the second win of the season for defending World Cup champion Hoefl-Riesch following a super-combined at St Moritz, Switzerland on January 29. She now has 22 career victories including eight in the downhill.

Vonn has 1,442 points in the overall standings, with Tina Maze of Slovenia on 994 and Hoefl-Riesch on 956.

A super-combined is scheduled at the venue Sunday.

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