Olympics-Alpine skiing-Switzerland's Gut-Behrami wins gold in super-G

By Simon Evans

YANQING, China (Reuters) - Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami won the women's super-G at the Beijing Olympics on Friday with a time of 1:13.51 to end her run of agonising near misses in the event.

Reigning super-G world champion Gut-Behrami, who had finished fourth in the event in the past two Winter Olympics, was 0.22 seconds quicker than silver medallist Mirjam Puchner of Austria.

The Swiss also picked up a bronze medal with Michelle Gisin 0.30 seconds behind her team-mate's winning time.

American Mikaela Shiffrin, who had failed to finish in her two favoured events, slalom and giant slalom, ended in ninth position, 0.79 seconds off Gut-Behrami's time.

Gut-Behrami, who claimed bronze here in the giant slalom on Monday, had missed out on the podium by a hundredth of a second in Pyeongchang and seven hundredths in Sochi.

She said this time she put tactics out of her mind.

"I had no strategy at all. I just tried to ski. This is what has always been a little bit of a problem in the past - thinking what to do and what to do better. Now I just try and ski," she said.

"I love super-G, I told myself it's not a different course to lots I have skied before," she added.

Having come out of the hut as the seventh runner down, the Swiss grabbed the lead from Puchner and then had a long wait to see her victory confirmed.

"I was so nervous in the finish someone would come faster. I am trying to enjoy it, but I think I am going to need a few more days to understand what is going on," she said.

Puchner has enjoyed most of her success in downhill and was shocked by her result on 'The Rock'.

"I am speechless. I never thought I could do this because super-G was always a little bit difficult for me, but today I had a good