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Staudacher claims the super-G gold

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ARE, Sweden -- Patrick Staudacher of Italy was the surprise gold medalist in the men's super-G as the Alpine skiing world championships made a belated start in Are on Tuesday.

Competing at his first world championships the 26-year-old left a host of favorites in the shade as he clocked an unbeatable time of one minute 14.30 seconds.

Former Olympic downhill champion Fritz Strobl of Austria was second, 0.32 seconds behind with Swiss veteran Bruno Kernen 0.62 seconds back in bronze medal position.

"This is a dream come true. It's madness," Staudacher told reporters at the bottom of the sun-drenched course.

"The conditions today suited me perfectly. I was able to attack, to take risks, to ski aggressively and just let the skis go," added the Italian, who has never made the podium in a World Cup race.

Staudacher, who plays bass guitar in his own cover band, is the first Italian male to win a world championship medal in a speed event since Kristian Ghedina's bronze in downhill in 1997

It appeared that the four-day wait for the start of the championships may have affected the likes of defending champion Bode Miller and Austrian ace Hermann Maier.

Despite a promising start Miller was well outside the top 10, although the maverick American would have finished higher had he not come close to crashing at least twice.

Maier, who was last out the start gate from the field of 30 top ranked racers, also had a promising start but the former Olympic champion could only manage seventh place.

It seemed the place to get a foothold on the podium was at the top of the shortened course, where Staudacher made a superb start and made few mistakes on the rest of the way down to post his winning time.

"At the finish I thought I was going to end up finishing fifth or sixth, so to win is magnificent," said Staudacher, whose best previous result this season was a fifth place in the downhill.

Benefit

"I think I got the benefit of having a relatively early start. But I also skied well."

Another 18 racers followed the Italian down the Olympia course, which was bathed in sunny, clear conditions after four days of inclement weather.

But only Strobl, a former Olympic downhill champion, came close to pushing the 26-year-old Staudacher off the top step of the podium.

Italian Peter Fill had been expected to mount a medals challenge in the first of the two speed disciplines - the second being the blue riband event of the downhill - but he was upstaged on the day.

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