Sawt Falasteen - Gut-Behrami wins tricky Crans-Montana downhill to stretch lead

Gut-Behrami continued her dream winter with her seventh win of the season -- the 32-year-old's best performance of her long career.

With Shiffrin still recovering from a knee injury, Gut-Behrami finished 0.21sec in front of her compatriot Jasmine Flury, the reigning downhill world champion, and Cornelia Huetter of Austria, who both had the same time.

A second downhill is scheduled for Saturday.

Gut-Behrami, while delighted by the win, wondered whether the conditions would be safe enough to race under on Saturday as the unseasonably warm weather has made the snow softer.

"It's borderline (the piste)," Gut-Behrami told RTS, explaining that she came close to "falling several times" and wondered whether the race course will be "even more dangerous to ski on" Saturday and Sunday because of the soft snow.

"With these kind of temperatures, we could not expect anything other than this," she said.

"They can work all night on the course but when it is 15 degrees it is normal that the snow becomes softer."

Race organisers had taken account of the number of falls in the second training session on Thursday and shortened the course but Gut-Behrami commented that it is "also legitimate to ask if it is safe enough."

Such has been the toll on the leading skiers this term that six of the top 15 downhill racers are absent from Crans-Montana.

Gut-Behrami now has a 105-point lead in the overall World Cup title race and climbs to second place in the downhill standings, 41 points behind Sofia Goggia of Italy, whose season is over after she broke her leg earlier this month.

Gut-Behrami is also top of the standings for the giant slalom and super-G.

Her 44 World Cup victories place her second only to Shiffrin among skiers -- male and female -- still competing.

Z.Ramadan--SF-PST