Downhill titles for Svindal and Vonn

Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal and USA's Lindsey Vonn were named World Cup downhill champions after Wednesday's final races of the season here was cancelled due to fog. It was Vonn's sixth successive downhill Crystal Globe and comes despite the American recovering from a knee injury suffered in a crash in February. The fog dashed Tina Maze of Slovenia's hopes of overhauling the Olympic champion, who missed the last two races since crashing at the World Championships. Maze trailed Vonn, who now has 17 Globes, by just one point and was homing in on a clean sweep of the Globes this season, until fate dealt her a cruel hand. Svindal, 30, claimed his second Crystal Globe this season, having already triumphed in the Super-G, and his ninth overall. However, while the fog ensured he earned his first Globe in the downhill, it also denied the reigning world champion the chance to close the gap on overall leader Marcel Hirscher of Austria, who leads the Norwegian by 149 points. Svindal has only three more races -- a Super-G, Giant Slalom and Slalom -- to try to snatch the overall title from Hirscher but the Austrian has been the more accomplished of the pair in the technical disciplines this season. From: AFP