Lindsey Vonn wins back-to-back Lake Louise downhills

Lindsey Vonn of the United States in action during the women’s downhill race in the FIS alpine skiing World Cup at Lake Louise Ski Resort in Canada on Saturday. Picture: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

AFP/MontrealAmerican Lindsey Vonn continued her domination at Lake Louise with a victory in Saturday’s Alpine Skiing World Cup women’s downhill race, her 17th triumph at the Canadian layout. A day after winning the first downhill of the World Cup season, Vonn captured the second in 1:50.43 -- .07 faster than her winning time on Friday. “Today I tried to limit my risk but at the same time my skis were so fast and the light was really flat and also it was a little more bumpy today, that I was kind of hanging on for dear life,” Vonn said. “I was trying to be aggressive and trying to still ski solidly but nothing was kind of going my way. I have to look at video and see how it actually was compared to what it felt like. My skis were really fast.” Swiss Fabienne Suter was second in 1:51.48 with Austrian Cornelia Huetter third in 1:51.59. Reigning downhill and Super-G World Cup champion Vonn has had a magical run at Lake Louise since taking her first World Cup win there in 2004. Vonn, 31, collected her 69th career World Cup victory, stretching her all-time record, as well as her 13th downhill triumph at Lake Louise. It was her 116th career podium finish. In 2013, Vonn was injured in a training run barely two weeks before Lake Louise, reinjuring her right knee, and settled for 40th and 11th in downhills and fifth in the Super-G.  The back-to-back wins put her atop the downhill standings with 200 points to 140 for Huetter after two races as she bids for an eighth World Cup crown in the discipline over the past nine seasons. Vonn jumped to third in the overall world Cup standings with 200 points, 80 behind compariot Mikaela Shiffrin. “I still don’t think I’m quite to the form that I was in 2012,” Vonn said. “The season that I won the four titles. I was so confident in all disciplines. I feel like I’m pretty confident right now but I think I could still be better, but I’m still happy with where I am.” Lillehammer: Norway delivered convincing home victories in the cross country World Cup relays in Lillehammer on Sunday with the men even completing a sweep of the podium. The quartet of Niklas Dyrhaug, Hans Christer Hollund, Martin Johnsrud Sundby and Petter Northug triumphed for Norway I in the men’s 4x7.5km in 1 hour 13 minutes 25.7 seconds with Norway III 2.8 seconds behind and Norway II grabbing third, 14.8 adrift. “This is quite a weekend for me, my first podium yesterday and now another podium with the team,” Hollund said. “It’s just perfect and I am happy that I am able to ski this well.” In the women’s race the first Norwegian women’s four of Maiken Caspersen Falla, Invild Flugstad Oestberg, Therese Johaug and Heidi Weng posted a winning time of 53:33.1 to claim victory in the opening 4x5km relay of the season by 1:59 minutes from Finland. “It’s my first ever time to be the anchor of a relay at any level,” Weng said. “So this was an exciting day for me and I am very happy that we won.” Third went to the United States, who claimed the final podium place just 1.4 seconds in front of the second Norwegian team. The Norwegian success continued as Magnus Krog won the Nordic Combined in 25:41.8, ending the 10km cross country section a second ahead of Germany’s Fabian Riessle, winner on Saturday, and 1.9 seconds ahead of Lukas Klapfer. Krog had made up 48 seconds on Austria’s Mario Seidl, who started first after topping the ski jumping section with a leap of 101 metres. Seidl eventually finished 19th, more than a minute off the pace. The World Cup action in Lillehammer concludes with a ski jumping normal hill event.