Camille Balanche qualified in fifth place and put in an almost flawless run over the 2.4 kilometers. "It all went really well," says Balanche, "I started really well at the top and rode clean lines."

She sets a clear new best time and first displaces her friend Emilie Siegenthaler from the hot seat by six seconds.
After her, the two Italians Eleonora Farina and Veronika Widmann make mistakes that lead to crashes, leaving only Cabirou and Hannah to oust Balanche from her place in the sun.

The Frenchwoman, who has never won a World Cup before, produces a furious run and ends up with a huge lead over World Cup leader Tracey Hannah, who also makes a serious mistake.
Camille Balanche is beaming about her result. "Before the season I wanted to qualify for the final, then reach the top ten and as time went on I saw that I wasn't that far away," says the former ice hockey player, who is only in her second year in the Downhill World Cup. "My goal was to get on the podium, but I didn't know if it was possible. Now it's a reality."
Balanche believes that her experience and growing confidence in her own abilities will enable her to make the leap in performance.

Emilie Siegenthaler is delighted with her second top five result of the season - "that's always my goal" - and equally delighted with her friend's podium finish. "It couldn't be better. I did well at the top, took a lot of risks. But I was so tired at the bottom, the energy was gone," explains Siegenthaler. "The course is so, so hard."

Carina Cappellari finishes in tenth place (+35.691). The Swiss champion says that she was "doing very well" in training, "almost better" than in the run. However, there was so much mud on the roots from the men's training in the morning that it was very difficult for her as the first female rider.
"I'm still lacking a bit of determination, I'm hesitating too much. But I think I have to be satisfied," said Cappellari.

Juniors: Janosch Klaus posts best career result

Janosch Klaus finished fifth in the juniors, 2.56 seconds slower than New Zealander Tuhoto-Ariki Pene (4:08.626). After missing out on qualifying for the final of the top 20 in Andorra and Les Gets due to a crash, this is a pleasing day for Klaus.

After crossing the finish line, he is delighted to have qualified again and to have achieved a top ten result. "The goal would actually be top five," says Janosch.
It was not to be expected that this would work out on this day. But both the dominator of the season, Frenchman Thibault Daprela, and the fastest qualifier Lucas Cruz from Canada made major mistakes that led to crashes.

Klaus has now completed his apprenticeship as an insurance salesman and can currently concentrate on the sport. "This is a technical course and that suits me. I made a few minor mistakes in the middle, but otherwise it was fine," he says of his run. After three minutes, he is even faster than the winner Pene.
With fifth place, he sets his personal best from Andorra in 2018. Ninth in Maribor was his best result of the season so far.

There was a surprise in the juniors. For the first time, it was not the high-flyer Valentina Höll from Austria who won, but Norway's Mille Johnset. Although the junior world champion was in the lead for the first three minutes, Johnset was faster for the rest of the five minutes.
Anna Newkirk from the USA, who lives in Switzerland, finished third, already 27 seconds behind.