Feuz retains downhill globe in Soldeu, joy for Schmidhofer

Beat Feuz claimed back-to-back FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup downhill globes with a sixth-place finish in Soldeu on Wednesday.

Feuz only needed 21 points to seal the title in Andorra, a feat he achieved comfortably as he stopped the clock in one minute 27.44 seconds.

It was not enough to give the Swiss his second downhill win of the season, though, as globe rival Dominik Paris took top spot.

Paris' 1:26.80 gave him victory by three tenths but he had to settle for second in the standings as Feuz's consistency across the season proved decisive.

@BeatFeuz hat es geschafft! Er gewinnt zum zweiten Mal in Folge die kleine Kristallkugel für den Sieg im Abfahrtsweltcup! Hierzu reichte beim Weltcup-Finale in #Soldeu ein 6. Rang. Stark! Herzliche Gratulation! #swissskiteam #fisalpine #kristallkugel #nummer1 pic.twitter.com/1KvBnhUlgt
— SwissSkiTeam (@swissskiteam) March 13, 2019

Austria's Nicole Schmidhofer was also celebrating as she claimed the first small globe of her career in the women's downhill.

The 29-year-old has impressed in both speed events this season and could still add to her downhill success in Thursday's super-G – although she needs plenty of fortune to deny Mikaela Shiffrin.

Compatriot and title rival Ramona Siebenhofer had to win to stand any chance of usurping Schmidhofer in the downhill rankings, something she failed to achieve.

That allowed Schmidhofer to finish nine tenths behind race winner Mirjam Puchner and take the globe by 96 points from Stephanie Venier – who jumped ahead of Siebenhofer to make it an Austrian top three.