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Sports pictures of the year
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Lucky start number helps Fill to get first win
LAKE LOUISE, Alberta (Reuters) - Italy's Peter Fill, helped by changing visibility conditions, beat the favorites to win his first World Cup victory in the Lake Louise downhill on Saturday.
The 26-year-old Italian had seven podium places behind him but had never before won a race.
Starting in 10th position, Fill was helped by a sunny, calm spell before wind started to blow, bringing in clouds at the top of the Olympic piste and ruining the chances of many of the later starters.
Starter number 65, however, Swiss Carlo Janka, took advantage of the return of sunshine and clear conditions to grab his first World Cup podium place.
Giant slalom specialist Janka came in second, 0.08 seconds behind Fill's time of one minute 47.40 seconds. Swede Hans Olsson was third, a further 0.08 seconds adrift.
Olsson had managed only two top-10 placings before in his career, both in super-combined.
"Conditions probably helped me but I was feeling pretty good in any case," said Fill, who is a cousin of last season's giant slalom women's World Cup champion Denise Karbon.
Fill had been on a downhill podium four times before, once on the same piste two years ago.
"Oddly enough, I don't like this piste. I like much more technical courses but the visibility was so good when I went down that it definitely helped."
In the deteriorating conditions, downhill World Cup champion Didier Cuche found himself in last position after 25 starters despite a great start to the season when he finished second in the giant slalom opener in Soelden in October.
"Things like this happen in skiing and they don't mean we're no good all of a sudden," said Cuche, who ended in 32nd place.
American Bode Miller, who dominated the first two training runs, had been the favorite but finished 0.68 seconds off the pace.
Aksel Lund Svindal, the World Cup winner in 2007, was lucky to start early.
In his first downhill since the bad crash a year ago that ruined his 2007-2008 season, the Norwegian finished seventh.
(Editing by Clare Fallon)
