Bennett adds to US success in Val Gardena with downhill win

SELVA DI VAL GARDENA, Italy (AP) — Bryce Bennett added to a long list of American success in Val Gardena by winning the first classic downhill of the World Cup season on Saturday.

Bennett joins teammate Steven Nyman (three downhill victories) and Bode Miller (one super-G victory) as American winners at the resort in the Dolomites.

For his first career victory, the 6-foot-7 Bennett finished 0.14 seconds ahead of Otmar Striedinger of Austria and 0.32 ahead of Niels Hintermann of Switzerland.

Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, the Austrian who had won three straight races on the Saslong course, went off line toward the end of his run after posting faster split times than Bennett.

Kilde narrowly avoided crashing but could not recover in time to clear the next gate.

Bennett had never finished better than fourth (twice in Val Gardena and once in Bormio) and now can go to the upcoming Beijing Olympics with newfound confidence.

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Andrew Dampf is at https://twitter.com/AndrewDampf