Bode Miller, of the United States, speeds down the hill during an alpine ski, men's ski World Cup super-G race, in Val Gardena, Italy, Friday, Dec. 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)
December 20, 2013 - 7:15 AM
VAL GARDENA, Italy - Canada's Jan Hudec captured his first World Cup medal in nearly two years, winning silver in the men's World Cup super-G Friday.
Aksel Lund Svindal increased his overall World Cup, while many contenders, including Manuel Osborne-Paradis of North Vancouver, B.C., skied off course or crashed in difficult conditions.
Svindal clocked one minute 35.82 seconds in a flawless run on the Saslong course to match his wins here in 2009 and last year. It was the Norwegian's 24th career win and his third this season, having also won back-to-back speed races in Beaver Creek, Colorado, this month.
Hudec, from Calgary, finished 0.58 seconds behind for his fifth career World Cup podium appearance and first since February of 2012. Adrian Theaux of France was third, 0.91 back.
Erik Guay of Mont Tremblant, Que., was sixth.
With wins worth 100 points each, Svindal moved 125 points ahead of Austrian rival Marcel Hirscher, who does not usually race super-G, in the overall standings. Ted Ligety of the United States remained third, 191 points back, after skiing off course on the top section.
Ligety went wide and attempted to make the next gate but then pulled up when he realized it was too risky.
Svindal also moved atop the super-G standings, 91 points ahead of Patrick Kueng of Switzerland, who went off course midway down his run.
Bode Miller finished eighth for his best speed result of the season, despite trouble landing the final jump, which forced the American to collide with the last gate, catching his pole and losing precious time.
With fog on the top and flat light the rest of the way down, seven of the top 30 starters did not finish and two others were disqualified for missing the final gate — Peter Fill of Italy and Hannes Reichelt of Austria.
Fill had a podium run going until he hit the last gate.
Matteo Marsaglia, an Italian who finished second last year, had an ugly fall midway down after failing to land a jump and went barrelling through a gate head first then got twisted around as he slid down the mountain. But he got up and appeared to avoid serious injury.
A downhill is scheduled for Saturday then the circuit moves over the Gardena pass into Alta Badia for a giant slalom on Sunday, with Ligety the overwhelming favourite after his emphatic win there last year.
— With files from The Associated Press
News from © The Canadian Press, 2013