Kroell shared a super-G victory with Beat Feuz of Switzerland on Friday but was alone atop the podium this time after finishing in 1 minute, 45.76 seconds. It was a close race again, though, as Kjetil Jansrud of Norway was just 0.02 seconds behind in second. His compatriot Aksel Lund Svindal was third, 0.48 behind the winner.
It was Kroell’s sixth career World Cup win and meant he overtook the lead in the downhill standings from Swiss veteran Didier Cuche, who finished 10th.
Kroell leads the discipline standings on 569 points, 48 points ahead of Cuche, with two downhill races left at the World Cup finals in Schladming, Austria.
Jansrud, wearing bib No. 1 and bidding for his first World Cup win after eight previous podiums, again had to see himself beaten by the smallest of margins by Kroell.
In Friday’s super-G, the Norwegian finished third when he came in 0.03 behind Kroell and Feuz.
“I am more disappointed today than yesterday,” Jansrud said. “That’s life. … If someone had told me a few weeks ago that I was going to finish second in a downhill race in Kvitfjell, I would have been really happy.”
Feuz finished fourth and extended his overall World Cup lead over technical specialist Marcel Hirscher, who is not racing here.
The Swiss skier now has 1,190 points, 55 ahead of Hirscher and 147 ahead of third-place Ivica Kostelic of Croatia.
Kostelic is recovering from knee surgery, but is expected to race next weekend’s technical events in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.
With his third place in the race, Svindal climbed past Cuche to fourth in the overall standings. The Norwegian, who won the overall title in 2007 and ’09, now has 919 points.
