Slovenia’s Andrej Jerman won the Bormio downhill to claim only the second World Cup win of his career. The 31-year-old completed the bumpy 3.27 kilometre Stelvio course in two minutes 0.32 seconds, more than half a second ahead of Switzerland’s Didier Defago.

Austrian Michael Walchhofer, one of the pre-race favourites, was third.

Austria’s Mario Scheiber was disqualified after finishing second because of a violation of the rules governing equipment.

Race organisers said his ski boots were 1.52 millimetres thicker than permitted.

Switzerland’s Didier Cuche finished fifth to go top of the downhill standings after four races of the season while his compatriot Carlo Janka went top of the overall World Cup standings after coming 11th.

Janka, who won the super combined, downhill and giant slalom at Beaver Creek earlier this season, overtook Austria’s Benjamin Raich who skipped the race.

American skier Bode Miller was also absent as he nursed a sore ankle which he injured during a volleyball game earlier this month.

Jerman’s only previous World Cup win was in the downhill at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany in early 2007.

“I’m happy I did it again, I didn’t want to stay with just one win because they say that one win is the same as no win,” Jerman said.

“We are still a small team, we don’t have as much support as the bigger teams but our coach says that hard work always pays off, and that is what we do, we work hard.”

Jerman, who had previously had four top-10 finishes in Bormio but had never done better than fourth place, said the victory had given him hope of winning an Olympic gold medal at Vancouver in February.

“Bormio is one of most demanding downhills in the calendar,” he said. “If I can win here, I know I can go anywhere else and compete with the others on the same level.”

Defago said he had sympathy for disqualified Scheiber.

“It’s too bad when a skier is disqualified by a few millimetres,” he said.

“Of course, you may be angry with your team, it can be a tense moment but, on the other hand, you know what you have achieved on the course and this gives you confidence for the next race.

“There are rules and we have to abide by them. The course wasn’t icy like last year but it was very bumpy and we had bad visibility too.”

Walchhofer agreed the course was as difficult as always.

“The course was not as icy as before but it was rough, there were a lot of ruts and it was really tough, and this made it even more challenging from a physical point of view,” he said.

Alpine Skiing World Cup:

Women’s Slalom (Zagreb) Sunday 8.45am and 11.15am LIVE on British Eurosport (Sky 410 / Virgin 521) and Eurosport Player

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