Viletta wins Super-G for first career victory

Switzerland's Sandro Viletta won his first career Alpine Ski men's World Cup race, capturing the Super-G at Beaver Creek on Saturday. The 25-year-old surprise winner defied falling snow to cross the finish line on the 1,818-meter coruse in 1min 18.71secs with Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal second in 1:18.91 and Swiss Beat Feuz finishing third in 1:18.97. Viletta started 30th, 19 spots behind early pace-setter Svindal, but was able to dislodge the Olympic champion in the discipline from the top spot on the podium in cold, overcast and snowy conditions. "It has been a long time since I have skied like that," Viletta said. "Last year all my teammates made the podium but not me because I was battling with back problems. "It's even more special this time because I climbed onto the podium with a friend (Feuz)." Viletta's best prior finish in a Super-G had been seventh. Svindal won last week's season-opening Super-G at Lake Louise, Canada, but could not pull off the double, although he maintained the lead in Super-G points and moved from third to the top of the World Cup points list. Svindal passed countryman Didier Cuche for the overall and Super-G lead after Cuche settled for ninth on Saturday. "I had a nice little run, but I didn't have the good touch in this snow," Cuche said. "Sandro made an incredible run down the mountain." Svindal leads the overall chase 265-238 with Feuz another seven points adrift. In the Super-G points, Svindal leads Cuche 180-109 with Viletta third on 108. Viletta continued a tradition for the Birds of Prey course to offer up strong showings to skiers who have not taken a World Cup triumph before. He follows Norway's Bjarne Solbakken in 2003 and Austrians Stephan Goergl in 2004 and Hannes Reichelt in 2005 as winners and first-time World Cup podium finishers. Last year, Austrian Georg Streitberger won his second career victory at the US Super-G race.