Courchevel (France) (AFP) - Switzerland's Marco Odermatt was left hailing the "perfect timing" of his maiden downhill victory as he streaked to gold in the World Ski Championships in Courchevel on Sunday.
The Swiss racer clocked a winning time of 1min 47.05sec down L'Eclipse piste, finishing 0.48sec ahead of Norwegian rival Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, with unheralded Canadian Cameron Alexander claiming bronze (+0.89).
"It's pure joy," said Odermatt, the runaway leader in the World Cup overall standings thanks to his domination of the super G and strength in the giant slalom.
He has yet to win a World Cup downhill, having finished second on seven occasions.
Odermatt missed the super-G podium on Thursday, finishing fourth and just 11-hundredths off a medal, and admitted the pressure had been on to perform come the blue riband event.
"Obviously it's not been the easiest of days before the race after the super-G, that wasn't perfect," he said.
"I didn't know if something was possible in the downhill, I actually really didn't expect it like this today.
"I thought it's going to be difficult for me after the trainings when so many athletes skied so well."
Odermatt, who won giant slalom gold at last year's Beijing Olympics, added: "I knew I had to do something: go all in, I went all in and I won, it feels amazing.
"It was perfect timing for my first downhill victory," he said, quickly dismissing any talk of complacency.
"In theory, I have everything.But if you win once you want to win twice, so I'm not done yet!"
Humility, respect in battle
Odermatt has been locked in a battle for World Cup dominance all season long with Kilde, who also won a silver in the super-G in Courchevel.
"It's so cool to fight for the victory, but also be humble to each other, to respect the other," said the 25-year-old.
Kilde was equally magnanimous, saying: "We've seen our battle almost in every race this year.We both almost crashed in Kitzbuehel.We're kind of following each other's paths.
"It's a really fun battle but it's fun because we ...are humble people, and are trying to do it in a good way.
"It's more about joy.Hopefully it's going to be like that for the rest of my career."
Kilde was disappointed to miss out on super-G gold to Canada's James Crawford by just one-hundredth of a second, but said his two silvers from these world champs counted equally.
"It would be amazing to have a gold, but two silver medals in a world champs is amazing," he said, hailing his "fantastic day".
"I'm really happy for Marco and next time maybe he will give me chance to win gold!"
Kilde added: "When someone delivers a run like Odermatt did today, it's like hats off.It's not easy, it's a world champs.
"He comes from a fourth place in the super-G and now shows his mental strength, with Switzerland on his back, and delivers that, it's incredible, he's an amazing athlete and he does great skiing.
"I've got to step up my game and try to beat him."
Alexander nabbed a second medal of these champs for Canada with his third place, praising Crawford's super-G win as having given him "a lot of confidence and motivation".
"You have to leave your best skiing out there and whatever happens happens," said Alexander.
"You've got one shot, you know you have to give everything in one shot."
