Swiss Feuz steps closer to World Cup ski glory

Switzerland's Beat Feuz moved one step closer to his maiden World Cup title after narrowly missing out on the downhill title, won by Austria's Klaus Kroell. Feuz, who launched his overall bid in Sochi last month with a downhill win and super-combined podium on the 2014 Olympic course, missed out by just seven points after finishing second to Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal in Wednesday's race. While Kroell took his maiden trophy in the series, Feuz's podium finish gave him a crucial 80 points and a 135-point lead on his closest competitor for the overall title, Austria's Marcel Hirscher. With three races remaining the Swiss looks odds-on to win his maiden overall crown, less than a month after stepping into contention following injury to previous leader and defending champion Ivica Kostelic of Croatia. The Swiss, however, is taking nothing for granted ahead of Thursday's super-G. "I need second place but the season's 25 best skiers are racing and they're really good so it won't be that easy," he said. Hirscher, who could also win the slalom crown, or third-placed Svindal could still score two wins and collect 200 points, and Feuz himself could make mistakes, he admitted. "It's still wide open," added Feuz. "I'll definitely give it my best. Any place is good and we'll see in the end if that was enough," he said. As well as the slalom, the men's super-G crown is also up for grabs. Svindal, who leads the race with 413 points, has a 42 and 45-point lead on Cuche and Feuz respectively. Despite the boost from his downhill win, the Norwegian knows he must be wary of Feuz and his fellow Swiss Cuche. "I have a lead of about 40 points but ahead of a Feuz or a Cuche, it's not much," said Svindal. "Certainly, I'll go in with a bit more confidence because I won today. So I know I can race well and give it my all and I will try to do that tomorrow." Four-time downhill World Cup winner Cuche, who retires this week, would welcome winning at least one crystal globe after his underwhelming 17th place finish in the downhill, during which he nearly crashed. US ski star Lindsey Vonn meanwhile flattened the opposition in the final women's downhill, in which she had already secured the trophy. She now has three World Cup crystal globes this season after securing the overall and super-combined titles and, with a 94-point lead on Austrian Anna Fenninger, is tipped to add a fourth from the super-G on Thursday. The unstoppable American aims to make this an even more memorable season by taking her current points tally of 1908 past the record 2000 set by Austrian Hermann Maier. And she promised to continue chasing records, notably Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell's record of six World Cup overall titles and 62 wins. "I have three races to make the 100 points (to beat Maier's record). I need to win, I need to make the points," said Vonn. "Tomorrow is really the big test, I hope I can close in on those records. I don't know if it's doable but I will try. "My goals for the future are always to win more. I look at the records of Moser-Proell and others who have achieved more than me and I will try to break those records in the next few years."