Feuz edges rival Paris to win classic Lauberhorn downhill

WENGEN, Switzerland (AP) — Beat Feuz struck back in his season-long rivalry with Dominik Paris to win a World Cup downhill on Saturday.

Switzerland’s best downhiller showed his mastery of the Alpine nation’s most storied event to win the Lauberhorn race for a third time, matching the record of Austrian great Franz Klammer.

Feuz finished 0.29 seconds ahead of Italy’s Paris down a shorter 2.95-kilometer (1 4/5-mile) course that started lower down the mountain due to overnight snowfall.

Thomas Dressen of Germany was third, 0.31 behind Feuz. That completed a podium of the only winners of the five World Cup downhills so far this season.

Feuz also won at Beaver Creek, Colorado, and was runner-up and third when Paris swept both races at Bormio, Italy, last month.

Earning 100 points for the win, Feuz retook the World Cup downhill standings lead from Paris by just 16 points. They are almost 200 clear of Dressen in third.

Feuz also won on the Lauberhorn in 2012 and 2018, and has two more runner-up finishes here. Klammer won three straight at Wengen from 1975-77.

The result was unofficial because lower-ranked skiers were still racing.