Austria's Renate Goetschl picked up the fourth World Cup downhill title of her career yesterday after a convincing victory in the final race of the season.

　　The 29-year-old former world downhill champion put in a storming performance on the lower half of the challenging Silvano Beltrametti course in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, finishing in a time of one minute, 26.89 seconds.

　　France's Ingrid Jacquemod was second, 0.57 seconds back, with Goetschl's nearest rival for the title, Hilde Gerg of Germany, in third, a further 0.10 seconds behind.

　　"It's certainly one of my most significant wins," Goetschl said after getting her hands on her seventh World Cup trophy in total.

　　As well as the four downhill crystal globes, she has also won two in super-G and the took the women's overall title in 2000.

　　"I wanted to win this one really badly and to win it with a victory in the last race is more than I could have dreamed of.

　　"The course is really demanding, one where you have to ski with your brain and not be overly aggressive. So I was also very keen to prove that I could do well on a course like this. I'd like to see more pistes like this on the women's tour."

　　Goetschl's victory was her fourth of the season and 37th of her career allowing her to take sole occupancy of third in the all-time list of women's World Cup race winners behind Annemarie Moser-Proell (62) and Vreni Schneider (55).

　　She had previously shared third place with German Katja Seizinger on 36.

　　"I had a mistake in the middle and I lost some time there," Gerg said. "I knew I had to risk a lot to beat (Goetschl) and it was a little bit too much."

　　Croatia's Janica Kostelic was able to gain ground on overall leader Anja Paerson of Sweden after tying for fourth place with American Julia Mancuso.

　　Paerson, who came in eighth, now has a lead of just 45 points over Kostelic with three races remaining - a super-G, giant slalom and slalom.

　　"I'm happy to have finished fourth but I'm totally unhappy with the way I skied," Kostelic said. "I knew Anja hadn't had a great run but my own run was one of my worst ever. I've made up some points but I'll have to ski much better this weekend if I want to win the overall cup."

　　Paerson entered the race with a 63-point lead. "I know how good shape Janica is in and also myself," the Swede said. "The last three races now are going to be maybe the most important this season."

　　The pair will continue their battle in today's super-G.

　　Kostelic said: "Only in slalom we're kind of the same, but in GS and super-G she's better."

　　Goetschl peaked late this season, winning her first race in mid-January at Cortina d'Ampezzo, where she swept three straight victories - a downhill and two super-Gs. She also finished second in another downhill that weekend.

　　Michaela Dorfmeister of Austria and Lindsey Kildow also had outside chances at the downhill title.

　　But Dorfmeister finished sixth in yesterday's race, while the American crashed heavily in the top section, skidding into the safety netting. The crash ended her hopes of finishing in the top three of the overall standings.

　　(Reuters/AP)