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| - Matthias Mayer won the last downhill of the men's World Cup season in Kvitfjell on Saturday as Aleksander Aamodt Kilde finished second to regain the lead in the overall standings. Frenchman Alexis Pinturault dropped to second in the overall standings, 54 points behind Norwegian Kilde, with just three races left in the season. Austrian Mayer edged Kilde by 0.14 seconds and Swiss skier Carlo Janka by 0.37. "I'm feeling really happy with three last days," said Kilde. "I'm really happy with my skiing these days. "My downhill has been really up and down this year... It's something I have to work on. "But in general, (I've been) so stable, good skiing and still working to find best equipment there is. "I'm really looking forward to keep on working hard and trying to fight for the big globe first of all and also for next season." Mayer added: "It's always good to win the last race of the season and to be in the top three of the overall downhill standings because it gives me a strong motivation for next year. "It's a difficult slope and it's hard to beat the Norwegians here as they are really fast, so I am even more satisfied!" said Mayer, a double Olympic gold medallist (2014 downhill, 2018 super-G). The World Cup finals scheduled for Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy from March 16-22 were cancelled on Friday because of the coronavirus outbreak. That left just four races in the season: Saturday's downhill and a super-G on Sunday in Kvitfjell, followed by a slalom and giant slalom scheduled for Kranjska Gora in Croatia on March 14 and 15. Switzerland's Beat Feuz, fourth on Saturday, was already assured of winning his third consecutive downhill globe. But the pressure was on the contenders for World Cup globes to collect points. Slalom specialist Pinturault made only his fifth career downhill start and his first in seven years in a vain attempt to pick up points. He finished 37th, 2.61sec behind Mayer. Kilde, who dominated the two training sessions on Thursday and Friday, skied third and set the best time with a flawless run in the sun. But Mayer, who started 13th, deprived the Norwegian of a second victory this season while securing his fourth of the season and the ninth of his career. The Austrian also deprived Kilde of 20 points in the chase for the first big crystal globe since the retirement last summer of Austrian Marcel Hirscher who had won eight straight. Pinturault said his result had not come as a huge surprise. "I wanted to give it a shot, I had to," said the Frenchman. "It also allowed me to ski the piste, which I'm not used to, before the super-G. "The super-G is not really the best for me, but I can score points, try some things. A top-10 would be a good result for me on this piste." Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen sat out the race on home snow, and is now third in the overall standings, 161pts behind Kilde. Pinturault reckoned his chances of nabbing the big crystal globe was 35 per cent, 50 per cent for Kilde and 15 per cent for Kristoffersen. rg/lp/pb
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