ZAUCHENSEE (Austria), Jan 9 — American speed queen Lindsey Vonn equalled the number of women’s World Cup downhill victories with an impressive win over two testing legs at Zauchensee today.

Vonn produced a near-faultless first run, timing 1min 4.94sec to finish 0.91sec ahead of Canadian Larisa Yurkiw.

The 31-year-old American veteran, Olympic downhill gold medallist in 2010 and world champion in 2009, backed that up with the fastest time down the second run (1:04.94) for a combined winning time of 2:11.17.

Yurkiw finished second at 1sec with Austrian Cornelia Huetter (+1.66) rounding out the podium in overcast conditions and on a quickly rutted piste that caused all manner of problems for the racers.

Vonn’s Swiss arch-rival Lara Gut failed to finish the first run while Liechtenstein’s Tina Weirather skied out of the second.

The American moved to within 58 points of Gut (658pts) in the overall standings.

It was her 72nd win on the World Cup circuit and a record-equalling 36th in the downhill, matching the onlooking Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell, who previously held the record of overall wins (62). — AFP