Marco Odermatt closes in on downhill title after winning 1st World Cup race since Olympics

Marco Odermatt has taken a giant step towards retaining his World Cup downhill title this season, leading a Swiss sweep Saturday in the first men's race since the Milano Cortina Olympic Games.

More good news for Odermatt was that his closest challenger, teammate and Olympic gold medalist Franjo van Allmen, was not part of the Swiss trio on the podium in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

Odermatt just barely edged out Alexis Monney by 0.04 seconds, with Stefan Rogentin coming 0.98 seconds behind in third. Austria's Vincent Kriechmayr and Italy's Giovanni Franzoni shared fourth.

Von Allmen had costly mistakes halfway through his run down the Kandahar course and finished 1.47 seconds behind in sixth.

Cam Alexander, of North Vancouver, B.C., was the top Canadian finisher. Alexander was 2.02 seconds behind Odermatt to land in 14th place.

Canada's Alexander finishes in 14th at legendary Garmisch downhill race

The result means Odermatt increased his lead over von Allmen to 175 points in the season standings with two races remaining. A race win is worth 100 points.

It felt like redemption for Odermatt, who arrived at the Olympics as a gold-medal favourite in the downhill but finished fourth.

"It was certainly a bit of a revenge today, too," said Odermatt, who won the World Cup downhill title the past two seasons and is also a strong favourite to win his fifth straight overall Crystal Globe this year.

The fascinating duel between close friends Odermatt and von Allmen has dominated the downhill season.

Odermatt started his campaign with back-to-back wins and later added a victory at the classic Wengen event, but von Allmen hit back with two wins, including the last race before the Olympics a month ago in Crans-Montana, where