GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany - Italy's Christof Innerhofer said fear of finishing outside the medals again helped push him to claim his maiden world ski gold when he won the men's Super G on Wednesday.

Having finished fourth in the Super G at the Val d'Isere world ski championships in 2009, the 26-year-old Innerhofer pulled out all stops in a bid to win gold on the Kandahar course which claimed several big names.

Innerhofer coped best with the icy conditions on day two of the competition and his winning time of 1 min 38.31 sec was more than half a second ahead of his nearest rival.

Austria's Hannes Reichelt was 0.60 sec off the pace to claim silver with World Cup leader Ivica Kostelic taking bronze at 0.72, but the day belonged to Innerhofer who aced the tricky course.

"I really liked going down there, I felt great," said the Italian.

"I kept telling myself I had trained well and I wasn't going to take fourth again, after the second split I knew I had to give it all.

"There were two key parts of the course I knew I had to attack.

"I knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I had to take it."

While Kostelic and Reichelt said they feft exhausted at the finish, the champion said he had fun all the way down.

"After the freefall, I was really tired too, but I made sure I pushed to the line, most of the mistakes happened today towards the bottom of the course," he said.

"I was enjoying myself and enjoyed the snow.

"I just wanted to show I can ski well and enjoy, because I go faster when I enjoy it," he said.

Reichelt was delighted with his silver as the 30-year-old claimed his first major medal.

"This is a big step in my career," he said. "I was really happy to get to the finish line, all I wanted to do was lie down and take a nap.

"After three tough years, now it is wonderful to finish with a podium place."

As the current World Cup leader - and focused on staying at the top of the rankings - Kostelic had said he was treating the world championships like a 'holiday', but admitted the Super G had been no picnic.

"I didn't imagine my holiday to be like this," grinned the 31-year-old.

"I was almost happier to get down in one piece than getting a medal. This will be no holiday if I ski (Saturday's men's) downhill."

Agence France-Presse

(China Daily 02/11/2011 page23)