Hütter wins to snatch downhill World Cup title from Gut-Behrami

Cornelia Hütter won the final women's ski race of the season on Saturday to steal the downhill World Cup title from Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami in dramatic fashion in front of an Austrian home crowd.

Hütter clocked 1 minute 45.08 seconds in Saalbach-Hinterglemm for only her second career win in the discipline, more than six years after her first in December 2017.

Overall, super-g and giant slalom trophy winner Gut-Behrami ran out of steam and finished outside the points in 17th.

"I didn't expect it at all. It appeared totally unrealistic. I never thought it would work out," Hütter told German broadcasters ZDF, the day after failing to beat Gut-Behrami for the super-g trophy.

But it was a nervous wait for Hütter until the end, and she was only assured of her first career World Cup trophy after the penultimate skier had finished.

Slovenia's Ilka Stuhec came close to finish second, .17 of a second behind Hütter, and Nicol Delago of Italy completed the podium in third with a deficit of .49 of a second.

Had both finished ahead of Hütter, Gut-Behrami would have kept her lead and clinched a record equalling fourth trophy in one season.

Instead, 2023 world championship bronze medallist Hütter claimed her biggest career success with a maiden trophy, 28 points ahead of Gut-Behrami and 47 clear of injured Italian Sofia Goggia.

Stefanie Venier of Austria also had a chance to win the trophy but managed only fifth on the day to come fourth in the final standings, 51 behind Hütter, who was the most consistent skier with one victory, two further podiums and three further top eight finishes from eight downhill races.

"You want to ski well at home and we are now looking forward to the world championships here [in Saalbach-Hinterglemm] next year," Hütter added after her sixth overall career success.

The start of the race was delayed a little because of wind gusts, and interrupted after two skiers because of an injured piste worker.

The season concludes on Sunday with the men's downhill, where Swiss Marco Odermatt can clinch a fourth season trophy, to go with the overall, super-g and giant slalom titles.