Men's Downhill
Hermann Maier will have to wait some time before establishing a new record of consecutive victories. After four successes in a row since the season start at Tignes, the Austrian lost by a mere 3/100 of a second in the second downhill race of the season.

	Hannes Trinkl

His teammate Hannes Trinkl, the Olympic bronze medal winner at Nagano in 1998, was able to make the best out of the easy "Olympic" run at Lake Louise to celebrate a remarkable fourth victory on the World Cup tour. The 31-year-old farmer from the eastern part of Austria has not won a race since the downhill at Bormio in December 1994.

Three other Austrian skiers finish behind them — Stephan Eberharter was 3rd in front of Josef Strobl and Andreas Schifferer. Two more Austrians came in among the top-10.

"Luck was on my side this time. You need some to win by 3/100. I skied well at the top but I also made a small mistake in the middle turns, but I didn't give up. I kept on fighting until the end. I needed such a result to recover all my confidence...." — Hannes Trinkl (AUT)

America's Chad Fleischer reached a promising 7th place only 7/100 behind the 1997 World Champion Bruno Kernen. Daron Rahlves finished 15th.

Despite establishing a new best time after completing his run, Hermann Maier shook his head and threw his poles after his run. Then he violently punched himself on his yellow helmet as to punish himself for making a mistake at mid-course. "I needed to achieve a perfect run to have a chance to win today," he said afterwards. "This course does not allow a single mistake. I have made great progress in downhill but I'm still not such a efficient glider. It's too bad to loose by only 3/100.

"I think I would have won by 7/10 without this mistake," said Maier about his falter. "Today I was better in the gliding sections than yesterday but not as clean as usual in the turns."

A few minutes later, Hannes Trinkl proved that Hermann was right. An excellent glider as well as a fine skier in the turns, Trinkl can handle all kinds of courses and conditions. He has already reached top-five results on almost all the "Classics" of the World Cup tour and he was aiming for revenge after his crash at Beaver Creek last week.

"Luck was on my side this time," he said with a great smile. "You need some to win by 3/100. I skied well at the top but I also made a small mistake in the middle turns, but I didn't give up. I kept on fighting until the end. I needed such a result to recover all my confidence," he added at the finish line.

"I gained much momentum in clocking fast times in the training runs and I felt able to reach a top-three place here. It's an important success for me and the downhill team," Trinkl added.

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"We all want to beat Hermann who is for sure a great skier. I'm proud to have done it today. To fight against him is very motivating. We know that we have to be at our best to have a chance to beat him but this makes it just more interesting." His victory — as much as Hermann's defeat — brought happiness in the hearts of several of his teammates who congratulated him warmly at the finish line. Hermann is a respected athlete yet not a very popular mate within his team.

In Sunday's super G The Herminator will for sure try his best to fight back and start a new winning streak. Only another mistake could cost him a sweet revenge.

Fleischer's 7th place is the second-best downhill result of his World Cup career. "I didn't feel so confident after the last training run and I was not pleased by my skiing, but I told my serviceman that I will go for it today," said the American after the race. "It's an important result after the disappointing races at Beaver Creek. It brings me great momentum for the coming races."

— Manuèle Joyce, MountainZone.com Correspondent