Montillet secures downhill victory
LAKE LOUISE, Canada -- France's Olympic champion Carole Montillet won the first women's World Cup downhill of the season with a repeat of her victory in Lake Louise last year.
Skiing under grey skies and with powder snow falling, Montillet made a mistake at the top of the run but powered down the course to beat Germany's Hilde Gerg by 0.16 of a second.
American Kirsten Clark finished third, three tenths of a second behind Montillet.
The 30-year-old, World Cup super-G champion and doyenne of the French team, won in Lake Louise last year when she also finished second in another downhill and third in a super-G. It was the fifth World Cup victory of her career.
Italy's former World Cup champion and Olympic silver medallist Isolde Kostner returned to the mountain where last year she had a crash that ended her season, but her run was disappointing and she finished 29th.
Canada's reigning world champion Melanie Turgeon was absent after suffering a back injury last month.
Meanwhile, World Cup women's slalom and giant slalom events scheduled for Slovakia and the Czech Republic next week have been cancelled because of unsuitable conditions.
Slovak officials in Bratislava said they had cancelled a slalom race scheduled for December 11 at the Vratna resort, because the ground had not yet frozen after unseasonably warm weather.
In the Czech Republic, races at Spindleruv Mlyn Ski Club on December 13-14 are also off.
A lack of snow and a weather forecast promising that little was on the way, made it impossible to stage the events.
Warm temperatures and a lack of snow in Europe have already forced the cancellation of several other races.
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