Val Gardena (Italy) (AFP) - Aleksander Aamodt Kilde continued his dominance of alpine skiing downhill racing on Saturday after winning at Val Gardena to claim his fourth victory of the season.
Reigning downhill and super-G champion Kilde finished top of the pile with a time of two minutes and 2.35 seconds in the Italian Dolomites.
His third win in four downhill races extended to 89 points his lead in the discipline over Marco Odermatt.
"It is amazing.I love to ski here.It's one of my favourite places to be," said Kilde.
The 30-year-old Kilde finished 0.35sec ahead of unfortunate French veteran Johan Clarey, who was denied his first ever World Cup win at the age of 41.
Clarey, who took downhill silver at the last Winter Olympics, was hoping for a historic win on the weekend his country contend the football World Cup final after topping the times with 13 runs completed.
But he finished second, 0.07sec ahead of third-placed Italian Mattia Casse who found his way to his first ever World Cup podium late on.
"I believed I could win but I am behind a monster.So maybe tonight I will be happy but now I am a little disappointed," said Clarey.
"I am still having fun and I don't know how I can be so fast at this age.Today I managed it and hopefully I can do it again in the next races."
World Cup champion Odermatt was 0.92sec off the pace in seventh, allowing Norwegian Kilde to also cut his Swiss rival's lead in the overall standings to 111 points.
Odermatt was bumped off the podium after four later skiers including Casse knocked him down from third, with Frenchman Cyprien Sarrazin arriving in sixth at 61st in the starting order.
