Canada's Kucera stuns field to claim men's downhill

Canada's John Kucera made the most of changeable weather conditions to claim an upset win in the men's downhill at the World Ski Championships here on Saturday.

Kucera, starting with bib number two, took advantage of perfect early conditions to clock 2min 07.01sec down the treacherous 2,998-metre-long Bellevarde course, which had a staggering 959m altitude drop.

The result was indicative of a season where there have been five different winners in the six World Cup downhills so far.

With only one World Cup victory to his name, in the Super-G in Lake Louise in 2007, the 24-year-old Canadian had the weather to thank as clouds and fog hampered later starters and some of the big favourites for the blue riband event.

"I was going for a podium, but I've never had a downhill podium before so to get it here is excellent," Kucera said, adding that he would now turn to the super combined and the giant slalom events.

No one could match his speed over the middle third of the race which involved some tight turns before dropping into "Le Mur", or the wall.

Swiss Super-G gold medallist Didier Cuche, who started 16th, claimed silver at 0.04sec while his compatriot Carlo Janka was a further 0.13sec adrift.

Cuche, who finished 0.99sec ahead of the Super-G field on the same hill on Wednesday, said the changeable conditions had made negotiating the course a "lottery".

"We were just hoping the weather window would stay open for at least the first 22 runners or even better 30," said the 34-year-old, who started 16th.

Michael Walchhofer, leader in the World Cup downhill standings, was allowed a second descent after his first was ruled to have taken place in "irregular conditions".

But the Austrian could only manage a ninth-placed finish, 1.43sec off the winner's time.

American Bode Miller, who has been outspoken in his criticism of a course he claims encourages conservative skiing, finished in eighth spot 1.37sec off the pace.

"Conditions were better after my run," said the reigning overall World Cup champion. "They should have stopped it before me.

"It's always a little tough when the weather plays a decisive factor," he said. "But it's not the first time and I'm sure it won't be last.

"I feel like I'm the fastest person on the course. I know I didn't prove it today but sometimes you can't control the weather.

"It was a mess this morning. The fog was always in and out. There was just that bank for a little time.

"It was just a real technical, critical section of the course where the fog bank was."

He added: "Kucera is no slouch, he's a very technically sound skier and when he has good conditions he's absolutely capable of skiing with the best guys.

"You can't really be giving anything away to a guy like him. He skied well and you need to have conditions that allow you to ski aggressively - we did not have that."

Switzerland's Didier Defago, who won the downhill classics in Wengen and Kitzbuehel last month, was in a good position to push for at least a podium spot when he suffered a dramatic fall.