America's Kirsten Clark, 23, achieved her first World Cup victory in the women's downhill at Lenzerheide, Switzerland, finishing ahead of France's Régine Cavagnoud and Germany's Petra Haltmayer.

Clark was the first of three Americans in the top-10. Her teammate Picabo Street, who won on this course back in 1995, finished 7th, 5/100 of a second in front of Megan Gerety, 8th. It was Picabo's best result in a downhill since returning to the World Cup tour. But she missed by a mere by 1/100 of a second her opportunity to participate in the World Cup finals in two weeks at Are, Sweden. A 6th place would have pushed her up among the best 25 in the downhill standings. She is now 26th, only two points behind the needed 25th place.

"I know that I could win races, but it's nice to confirm it in such a way."

But this is the best result in a long time for the US team, which has not celebrated a major win in a downhill since the success of Hilary Lindh at the Sestriere World Championships in 1997. The last US women's downhill success goes back to Street's win at Narvik, Norway, in March 1996.

Clark had never done better than 9th in a World Cup race, but her success in the combined downhill at St. Anton may have given her enough confidence to be more ambitious and focused this time. "I know that I could win races, but it's nice to confirm it in such a way...I managed the key turns, so I knew that my final time was not as bad as in the past events," Clark said.

She was also lucky enough to start at the beginning of the race when the sun was shining. Conditions grew worse, becoming more difficult with clouds and snow later in the race. At the finish line, she had to wait a long time before being assured of her win. In the end, Cavagnoud was the only real threat. The other favorites had a hard time handling the low visibility and wind in the upper part of the course.

Cavagnoud stepped closer to the leaders in the Overall World Cup standings. Her 2nd place finish is her best performance in a downhill this season. "I wanted badly to win a downhill before the end of the winter, but this result is really important considering the conditions which were really difficult with the low visibility and the smooth snow which covered the slope," Cavagnoud said. "Now I hope that the super G will be held in better weather conditions."

A good place in Sunday's super G could guarantee her the Cup in that event, which she has dominated the whole season.

Norway's Ingebor Marken was 4th in front of Switzerland's Corinne Rey-Bellet. Italy's Isolde Kostner, the current leader in the downhill standings, placed 6th.

Austria's Renate Goetschl and Canada's Melanie Turgeon skied fast in training three days ago but neither finished among the top 10. They, along with many other skiers, were quite upset at having to race in such bad conditions. Goetschl, only 12th with a delay of 1.06 second behind the winner, lost precious points in the standings, especially the Overall World Cup. It's the first time since mid-December in St. Moritz that Goetschl, the 2000 Overall World Cup winner, hasn't finished a speed race on the podium.

Goetschl is less than 100 points behind the overall standings leader, Croatia's Janica Kostelic. But Kostelic can maintain her top position with another good result in Sunday's super G. She did not start today after injuring her left hand at the beginning of the week, but the Croatian wants to race the super G by attaching her pole to her hand with tape.

The World Cup downhill title will also be decided in two weeks at the finals at Are, Sweden. Only 61 points separate the Austrian from the downhill leader, Italy's Isolde Kostner, who has never won a World Cup title so far.

— Manuèle Lang, World Cup Correspondent

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