KILDE EDGES ODERMATT IN DOWNHILL DUEL

The rivalry between Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and Marco Odermatt emerged again Friday in a World Cup downhill at Wengen, Switzerland.

Kilde edged Odermatt by 0.19 seconds to win one day after his Swiss friend had won a super-G in another duel on the storied Lauberhorn hill. They have now combined to win 11 of 19 men’s World Cup events this season.

“Many times we took revenge on each other and that’s fun,” said Odermatt, who like Kilde aims to win a first major championship medal at the Beijing Olympics next month. “He’s a great guy, we’re good friends.”

Beat Feuz was third Friday, 0.30 behind the Norwegian winner, while seeking a record fourth win in his home country’s signature race.

Kilde’s second downhill win of the season was the fifth of his career and first at one of the historic back-to-back race venues in January — the Lauberhorn at Wengen, and Hahnenkamm at Kitzbuhel, Austria.

It earned him 100 points and lifted him to the top of the season-long downhill standings. Still, the 2020 overall World Cup champion barely cut the gap on Odermatt in the overall standings.

Odermatt has six race wins compared to Kilde’s five yet his relentlessly consistent results have built an overall lead of nearly 400 points. A runner-up finish in Odermatt’s firstever downhill in Wengen was even more impressive for being faster than Feuz, his favored teammate and a four-time defending World Cup downhill champion.

Elsewhere

Mark Kondratiuk survived some shaky landings to win the men’s gold medal as his two fellow Russians faded at the European figure skating championships in Tallinn, Estonia.

• Martins Dukurs of Latvia has done it again. Kimberley Bos of the Netherlands has done it for the first time, and the first time in her country’s history. Dukurs and Bos cemented their status as gold-medal favorites at the Beijing Olympics by finishing off World Cup skeleton overall season championships at St. Moritz, Switzerland — the 11th for Dukurs, the first for Bos.

Notable

Claude Julien was named coach of Canada’s men’s hockey team for the Beijing Olympics, and Shane Doan was named general manager.