GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany — Carlo Janka of Switzerland won the final downhill of the season Wednesday to take the overall World Cup lead with three races remaining.
The Olympic giant slalom champion edged Mario Scheiber of Austria, keeping the once-powerful Austrian team from winning a downhill race this season, the first time it was shut out since 1991-92.
Patrick Kueng of Switzerland and Erik Guay of Canada shared third place.
The 100 points he got from his third downhill victory of the season gave Janka a 54-point leader over Benjamin Raich of Austria in the race for the overall title. Raich did not compete in the downhill, but will ski the giant slalom and slalom.
Janka finished in 1 minute, 58.45 seconds. Scheiber was .02 seconds behind and Kueng and Guay, who won a super-G race in Kvitfjell, Norway, on Sunday, were both .07 behind.
“In the first half of the race it was not perfect surely, but I made no mistakes at the bottom half,” Janka said after his seventh career victory. “It will be good to have a good margin on my side going into the technical races.”
One of the late starters at No. 20, Janka said he benefited from better conditions.
“I had better visibility,” he said.
Didier Cuche of Switzerland already had secured the downhill title and finished eighth Wednesday skiing with a sore back.
“I almost didn’t make it to the start,” said Cuche, who needed a painkilling shot.
Janka said the overall title would be a fine end to an already good season.
“I knew that this was the event where I needed to win some points,” he said. “The race was very tight and I was the lucky one, I was on the right side of the clock.”
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