Eberharter bounces back

Eberharter cemented his World Cup lead

Overall World Cup leader Stephan Eberharter added the final touches to his Winter Olympic preparations with victory in the super-G in Germany's Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Austrian Eberharter covered the 2,070-metre long Kandahar course in one minute 22.11 seconds on Sunday after finishing third in the first race 24 hours earlier.

He beat Switzerland's Didier Cuche by 0.2 seconds for his seventh victory of the season in the final super-G race before the Salt Lake City games.

Austria's Andreas Schifferer, fourth on Saturday, improved on that performance to finish third in a time of 1:22.30.

Countryman Fritz Strobl was fourth in 1:22.38 as the race for one of the nation's four Olympic places hots up.

Thirty-seven of the 63 competitors on the start list had completed the course before rain forced organisers to call a halt to the event.

The results to that stage stood.

Eberharter was third behind Cuche and winner Strobl in the first of the back-to-back super-G races on Saturday.

Hopes of a nation

Eberharter, 35, has now won three of the last four of this season's super-G races.

He holds a commanding lead in the World Cup super-G standings and also leads in the downhill discipline after winning four speed races this season.

Eberharter bears the hopes of a nation on his shoulders after Austria's defending super-G champion Hermann Maier was ruled out of the Olympics following his summer motorbike crash.

There were no downhill races on the famed Kandahar course because of changes being made to reduce the speed and make it safer.

The Swiss resort of St Moritz will host a men's World Cup slalom, giant slalom and downhill next weekend before the Olympics begin in Utah on 8 February.

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Results from Sunday's super-G race in Garsmisch-Partenkirchen:

1. S. Eberharter (Austria) one min 22.11 secs
2. D. Cuche (Switzerland) 1:22.13
3. A. Schifferer (Austria) 1:22.30
4. F. Strobl (Austria) 1:22.38
5. K. Aamodt (Norway) 1:22.97
6. F. Nyberg (Sweden) 1:23.12
7. L. Kjus (Norway) 1:23.19
8. A. Fattori (Italy) 1:23.23
9. C. Gruber (Austria) 1:23.24
10. H. Knauss (Austria) 1:23.28