Mayer edges Pinturault to win World Cup combined event

WENGEN, Switzerland (AP) — Matthias Mayer scored a rare win for a downhill specialist in a World Cup combined race on Friday.

Getting first use of the slalom course as leader after the morning downhill, the 2014 Olympic downhill champion from Austria put down a solid run to set a target no one could match.

Pre-race favorite Alexis Pinturault was second, only 0.07 seconds behind Mayer after posting the best slalom time. Another French technical race specialist, Victor Muffat-Jeandet, was third, 0.67 behind.

Mayer seemed surprised in the leader’s box, smiling and clapping his hands above his head as first Muffat-Jeandet and then Pinturault failed to unseat him.

Mayer’s seventh career World Cup win was his first outside the speed disciplines of downhill and super-G. He has Olympic gold medals in both of those disciplines.

It was also the first win in a World Cup combined for a top speed racer since Kjetil Jansrud’s victory in Wengen four years ago. Jansrud placed seventh on Friday.

Pinturault earned 80 points to retake the overall World Cup lead from Henrik Kristoffersen by two points. Kristoffersen does not enter the combined, but they will renew rivalry in Sunday’s slalom.

Mayer remains fifth in the overall standings in a wide-open race to succeed Marcel Hirscher, who retired in the offseason after a record eight straight titles.

The Austrian racer’s mastery of the Lauberhorn hill this week positions him as a favorite in the classic downhill on Saturday.

Earlier in the downhill, Adrian Smiseth Sejersted crashed into safety nets and was airlifted from the course by helicopter. There was no immediate report on his injuries.

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