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| - The men's alpine skiing World Cup downhill race at Saalbach-Hinterglemm was suspended and then cancelled Friday after bad weather on the piste made it impossible for the meeting to go ahead. Just nine of the day's racers managed to complete their runs in Austria, with Italy's Dominik Paris the fastest, 0.07sec ahead of home hope Vincent Kriechmayr. The race was suspended after France's Johan Clarey's run as fog joined the continuous snowfall on the course. After almost an hour of delay organisers then cancelled the race, and later decided to not reschedule for another day. That means Paris' time will not count as at least 30 skiers need to race for the results to be valid. "It's the right decision, the race would not have been fair. It is not easy to lose this first place as I skied well," said Paris. The 31-year-old will be one of the favourites for the second downhill run at Saalbach scheduled for Saturday, with a super-G finishing off the meeting on Sunday. Friday's cancellation helped Alexis Pinturault, who leads the overall standings by 210 points as it stopped his main pursuer Marco Odermatt from scoring points. Pinturault will take part in the super-G as he aims to become the first Frenchman since Luc Alphand in 1997 to win the big crystal globe. Switzerland's Beat Feuz was also helped out in his attempt to retain his downhill title, as he finished more than a second behind Paris in fourth before the race was shelved. Feuz, who has won the last three downhill globes, is top of the discipline's standings, 48 points ahead of Matthias Mayer and 118 in front of third-placed Paris. rg/td/mw
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