Swiss Skier Wins Super-G by Shade of a Second

Swiss skier Steve Locher edged Armand Schiele of France by a mere 0.03 seconds today to win a World Cup Super-G.

Locher sped down the course to finish with a time of 1:32.13 minutes, edging Schiele at 1:32.16 and third-place Guenther Mader of Austria at 1:32.37.

Norwegian Super-G specialist Ole Christian Furuseth, second in the World Cup overall standings, was fourth.

In a downhill competition earlier in the day, Austrian Helmut Hoeflehner powered to his second World Cup downhill victory in three days, beating William Besse of Switzerland.

Hoeflehner, 30, finished with a time of 1:58.09, ahead of Besse at 1:58.93 and Franz Heinzer of Switzerland in third place with 1:59.24.

Patrick Ortlieb of Austria tore ligaments in his left knee after falling midway down the Killy-Oreiller track in the downhill and was unable to finish. He was 31st in Saturday’s downhill at Val D’Isere.

It was Hoeflehner’s ninth World Cup downhill victory and established him at the top of this season’s World Cup downhill standings.

The downhill had originally been scheduled for Sunday but was called off because of high winds and snow at the Alpine resort.