Alpine skiing: Weather hands World Cup downhill titles to Feuz and Goggia

[March 17, 2021]    (Reuters) - Switzerland's Beat Feuz and Italy's Sofia Goggia won the men's and women's Alpine skiing World Cup downhill titles respectively on Wednesday after the final races in Lenzerheide were cancelled due to bad weather.

Italy's Sofia Goggia in action in the Women's Giant Slalom at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia on January 16, 2021 REUTERS/Srdjan Zivulovic/File Photo

Organisers had already been unable to hold the required training runs on Monday and Tuesday due to conditions in the Swiss resort and, unlike major events, the schedule has no reserve days.

"According to World Cup Rules, the races will not be rescheduled. Globes will be awarded today," the governing FIS said.

Feuz, who was 68 points clear of Austria's Matthias Mayer, has now won the men's downhill World Cup for four years in a row.

Olympic champion Goggia had been 70 points clear of Switzerland's Corinne Suter in the women's standings despite a month's absence because of injury that forced her to miss last month's world championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo.

It was her second downhill globe after winning it in 2018.

The cancellations will help men's and women's overall World Cup leaders Alexis Pinturault of France and Slovakia's Petra Vlhova, whose closest rivals had hoped to catch up in the speed races.

Both overall titles will be decided in Lenzerheide with three races -- each win worth 100 points -- remaining for men and women; giant slalom, slalom and super-G.

Vlhova is 96 points clear of Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami. Pinturault, who has not raced downhill this season, leads Switzerland's Marco Odermatt by 31.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Timothy Heritage)

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