Alpine skiing-Swiss Suter on course for gold in women's downhill

YANQING, China :Switzerland's Corinne Suter was in the gold medal position after the first 20 skiers had completed their runs in the women's downhill at the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday.

Suter powered down the piste, known as 'The Rock', in a time of 1:31.87, beating Italy's defending Olympic champion Sofia Goggia's time by 16 hundredths of a second.

Goggia, who had fought back to fitness after suffering an injury in a crash last month, was in second place with compatriot Nadia Delago in the bronze medal position with 16 lower-ranked skiers to follow.

Goggia, the Pyeongchang winner and the dominant force in women's downhill, let out a huge scream at the finish line as she moved ahead of Delago into top spot, giving her the chance of a remarkable repeat win and an Italian one-two.

But then Suter, Goggia's closest challenger on the World Cup circuit, produced an outstanding run to grab the top spot and put Switzerland in position for a fourth gold medal at these Games in Alpine ski.

Lara Gut-Behrami won gold in the women's super-G while in the men's events Beat Feuz won the downhill and Marco Odermatt was the gold medallist in giant slalom.

(Reporting by Simon Evans, Editing by Ken Ferris/Peter Rutherford)