ST. ANTON, Austria Hannes Trinkl won a surprise world downhill title on Wednesday after beating fellow Austrian and defending champion Hermann Maier into second place.

Trinkl clocked an unofficial time of one minute 38.74 seconds to deny Maier, the overall World Cup champion and runaway favorite, who timed 1:38.94.

Flori Eckert of Germany, a 22-year-old who has never won a World Cup race, provide a further shock by taking third in 1:39.26.

Trinkl, a downhill bronze medalist at the Nagano Olympics in 1998, inflicted Maier's second defeat of these world championships after the world number one finished third in last week's Super-G.

(Reuter)