Austria's world champion Vincent Kriechmayr won the World Cup downhill in Saalbach on Saturday, seeing off Beat Feuz who edged closer to a fourth successive small crystal globe. Kriechmayr took gold in the downhill and super-G at last month's world championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo and the 29-year-old continued that run of form in the sunshine as he clocked a run of 1min 53.07secs, edging out the Swiss Feuz by 0.17sec. Olympic champion Matthias Mayer finished third 0.27 seconds behind his fellow Austrian Kriechmayr. Feuz leads the downhill discipline standings by 68 points from Mayer, with one event to come. An eighth-placed finish at Lenzerheide in the final event on March 17 will be enough for him claim the small globe. Switzerland's Marco Odermatt took fifth and closed the gap on overall leader Alexis Pinturault to 165 points in the general classification. The Frenchman, who is not competing in the downhill, was able to breathe a sigh of relief that Friday's first race was cancelled because of bad weather on the piste. Seven events remain to decide who will be the season's overall champion. On Sunday, Pinturault will race in the super-G, in which he won bronze at the world championships, as will Odermatt who has twice made the podium in the discipline this season. Kriechmayr leads Mayer by 101 points in the super-G standings and could secure the small crystal globe. rg/bsp/pb