Norway's Svindal wins downhill at Alpine worlds

[February 09, 2013]  SCHLADMING, Austria (AP) -- Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway won the men's downhill title at the Alpine skiing world championships Saturday after a powerful run down the Planai course that no one came close to matching.

Svindal kept a near-perfect line down the entire 3.33-kilometer course to finish in 2 minutes, 1.32 seconds for his second world downhill title, after also winning the marquee event in 2007. It was his fifth world title overall, to go with an Olympic gold in super-G.

Dominik Paris of Italy, who leads this season's World Cup downhill standings, trailed Svindal by 0.46 in second. David Poisson of France finished third, 0.97 behind.

The rest of the field, led by Klaus Kroell of Austria in fourth, finished more than a second off Svindal's winning time.

[Associated Press; By ERIC WILLEMSEN]

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