Norway’s Jansrud, Kilde 1-2, Canada’s Erik Guay third in World Cup super-G

VAL GARDENA, Italy — Canadian skier Erik Guay continued adding to his pile of World Cup medals with a bronze in Friday’s super-G.

Norwegians Kjetil Jansrud and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde finished 1-2 ahead of Guay, who collected the 24th podium result of his career.

Jansrud, the reigning Olympic super-G champion, clocked one minute 31.99 seconds down the Saslong course, finishing .06 seconds ahead of Kilde and .13 in front of Guay.

Including his downhill victory three years ago, it was Guay’s fourth podium result in Val Gardena.

“Val Gardena has always been good to me,” Guay said. “A lot of times when I ski super-G, I don’t push as hard to the limits as I should but today I skied to the edge, no mistakes, clean run and I’m very happy.”

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Guay is rounding into race form after a sixth knee surgery that wiped out his entire 2014-15 season. The 35-year-old from Mont-Tremblant, Que., was third in a downhill in St. Moritz, Switzerland in March.

Last year in Val Gardena, Aksel Lund Svindal, Jansrud and Kilde finished 1-2-3 for Norway in the super-G.

It could have been another podium sweep for the “Attacking Vikings” but Svindal wasted a fast start to his run with two major mistakes, ultimately skiing through a gate and not finishing.

“Team Norway likes Val Gardena,” Kilde said. “Unfortunately we didn’t get Aksel with us this time but he’ll for sure be back. It’s always fun to ski the Saslong and the snow is always good.”

When Jansrud crossed the finish line and came to a stop, he pointed toward Kilde in the leader’s spot.

“Everything flows pretty well for us these days,” Jansrud said.

Olympic downhill champion Matthias Mayer of Austria finished fourth, 0.48 behind, as he returned to the site of a horrific crash a year ago which ended his season.

Conditions were perfect, with the temperature below freezing level, visibility good and the snow hard and compact.

Olympic combined champion Sandro Viletta was airlifted off the course by helicopter to a local hospital after crashing and sliding into the safety netting backward. It wasn’t immediately clear what type of injuries the Swiss racer had.

Jansrud has now won all three speed races this season. He swept a super-G and downhill in Val d’Isere, France, earlier this month.

“It’s humbling to be able to pull it off,” Jansrud said. “I don’t know how long it can continue but I’ll try as long as possible.”

Dustin Cook of Lac-Sainte-Marie, Que., was sixth less than half a second out of a podium spot. The 2015 world silver medallist in super-G missed all of last season with a knee injury and subsequent surgery.

“This is what I’ve been working towards since I got injured last season,” Cook said. “To do it on my second race back, to be in the top 10, is awesome. It feels great to be back in the top 10 and have the confidence to take into the rest of the season.”

Vancouver’s Manuel Osborne-Paradis was 26th and Calgary’s Erik Read finished 57th. Jan Hudec, who now races for the Czech Republic after a dispute with Alpine Canada, was 61st.

Since the start of the 2012-13 season, Norwegian skiers have won 16 of the 27 World Cup super-G races. No other country has more than four wins in this span.

It was the 17th career World Cup victory for Jansrud. He moved up to second in the overall standings, 140 points behind five-time defending champion Marcel Hirscher of Austria, who does not race downhill.

On Saturday, American skier Steven Nyman, who finished 25th, will be aiming to match Austrian great Franz Klammer and Italian skier Kristian Ghedina with his fourth Val Gardena downhill win — although the Norwegians are favoured.

— With files from The Canadian Press

The Associated Press