Canada's Erik Guay earns 1st podium of alpine season

Montreal's Erik Guay earned his first World Cup medal of the season by finishing third in the men's super-G race in Val Gardena, Italy on Friday.

Kjetil Jansrud of Norway won the event with a time of one minute 31.93 seconds.

His teammate Alexsander Kilde was second at 1:31.99, while Guay clocked in at 1:32.06.

The last time Guay reached the podium in super-G was at the same event in 2010, however he has now won five medals (including downhill) at Val Gardena and 24 overall.

"Val Gardena has always been good to me," said Guay, who is regaining his form following his sixth knee surgery. "A lot of times when I ski super-G I don't push as hard to the limits as I should but today I skied to the edge, no mistakes, clean run and I'm very happy."

Dustin Cook of Ottawa, who was sitting in the leader box after nine racers, ended up sixth, but was less than half a second out of a podium spot. The 2015 world silver medallist in super-G missed all of last season with a knee injury and subsequent surgery.

"This is what I've been working towards since I got injured last season," Cook said. "To do it on my second race back, to be in the top 10, is awesome. It feels great to be back in the top 10 and have the confidence to take into the rest of the season."

Manuel Osborne-Paradis of North Vancouver, B.C., finished 26th, Calgary's Erik Read 57th, and Jeffrey Frisch, who was born in Italy, was disqualified during the run to round out the Canadian results. 

Jansrud has now won all three speed races this season. He swept a super-G and downhill in Val d'Isere, France, earlier this month.

"It's humbling to be able to pull it off," Jansrud said. "I don't know how long it can continue but I'll try as long as possible."

Svindal wastes fast start

It could have been another podium sweep for the "Attacking Vikings" but Aksel Lund Svindal wasted a fast start to his run with two major mistakes, ultimately skiing through a gate and not finishing.

Last year in Val Gardena, Svindal, Jansrud and Kilde finished 1-2-3 for Norway in the super-G.

"Team Norway likes Val Gardena," Kilde said. "Unfortunately we didn't get Aksel with us this time but he'll for sure be back. It's always fun to ski the Saslong and the snow is always good."

Norwegians have won the Val Gardena super-G five consecutive times, with Svindal posting three victories and Jansrud two.

Since the start of the 2012-13 season, Norwegian skiers have won 16 of the 27 World Cup super-G races. No other country has more than four wins in this span.

It was the 17th career World Cup victory for Jansrud, who won the super-G at the 2014 Sochi Games.

Stuhec moves up for 3rd win

Ilka Stuhec moved from third to first and won the women's combined race on Friday for her third victory of the season.

Sitting third after the downhill run, the Slovenian finished .12 seconds ahead of Switzerland's Michelle Gisin and .16 clear of Soffia Goggia of Italy.

"It feels amazing, because I know my run in the morning was not perfect and I made a few mistakes," Stuhec said. "I've never liked slalom too much, actually. Lately we've been training it a bit more than before."

Marie-Michele Gagnon of Lac-Etchemin, Que., finished 21st and posted the top Canadian result, while Valerie Grenier of Ottawa did not finish. 

Stuhec's two other wins this season were in downhill, both in Lake Louise. Prior to this season, she had not placed higher than fourth in a race.

Goggia is also having a breakthrough year. This was her fifth podium in seven races this season.

Defending overall World Cup champion Lara Gut was sixth after the downhill and went off course in the slalom. Her failure to finish cost her valuable points as she bids to close the gap on World Cup leader Mikaela Shiffrin.

Gut, who won last year's Alpine combined at Val d'Isere, is 105 points behind Shiffrin in the standings.

Shiffrin is skipping the speed events in Val d'Isere and will return for Tuesday's giant slalom in the nearby French resort of Courchevel.