Intro:

Travis Ganong of the USA was victorious at the men's FIS World Cup downhill event in Santa Caterina, Italy on Sunday (28 December).

Script:

The Men's FIS downhill World Cup came to the slopes of Santa Canterina in Italy on Sunday.

American Travis Ganong took the title as he navigated the course in style.

The American who was fifth at the Olympics in the downhill, finished almost half a second quicker than the early leader Otmar Striedinger.

The win moves Ganong into the top ten of the men's standings.

An impressive time that was, yet there were those to came close to dislodging the American in top spot.

Matthias Mayer came closest, although had to settle for second place - the Austrian's time of one minute, 32.51 seconds just 0.09 seconds behind the American's winning run.

The podium was rounded out by Italy's Dominik Paris, who also finished his run agonisingly close to Ganong's time with one minute, 32.63 seconds.

The results meant that Paris is also third in the overall standings on 405 points, while Mayer is ninth and Ganong tenth, with 262 and 209 points respectively.

The next official downhill for the men is January 16th in Switzerland.