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Swiss skiers fall behind in Kvitjfell

Swiss skier, Franco Cavegn, came in fourth at Saturday's downhill race Keystone

The Swiss men's skiing team were unable to make it onto the podium after the latest downhill race at the Norwegian World Cup in Kvitjfell. However, Switzerland's Franco Cavegn did come in fourth on Saturday.

Despite some strong performances on Friday, the Swiss team were unable to match the times of Austria’s Stephan Eberharter and Fritz Strobl as well as Germany’s Florian Eckert on Saturday.

Eberharter took first place in Saturday’s downhill, the next to last in the World Cup series, while Eckert took second and Strobl came in third.

Switzerland’s Franco Cavegn took fourth place while his team mates, Didier Defago came in eighth, Steve Locher came in 10th, Rolf von Weissenfluh came in 13th, and Silvano Beltrametti came in at number 14.

Cavegn lost precious time at the start of the race while Defago, who marked a senior career best on Friday, fell a half-second behind in the last run of Saturday’s race.

Meanwhile, Austria’s Hermann Maier, who came in fifth on Saturday, retained the men’s World Cup overall title. Maier won the overall title after Norway’s Lasse Kjus – the only skier who still had a chance of overhauling the 28-year-old Austrian – failed to finish in the top two at Saturday’s race.

Following Saturday’s race Maier led Kjus 1,318 points to 753 in the overall standings. Switzerland’s Michael von Grünigen currently ranks sixth in the overall World Cup standings with 693 points.

Only five races remain, one super-G in Norway and four in each discipline – downhill, super-G, slalom and giant slalom – in the World Cup finals at Are, Sweden next week.

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