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Bruised Mayer rises from crash to grab super-G gold

Austria's Matthias Mayer stunned Norway's skiers with a thrilling men's super-G victory at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics on Friday, breaking a Norwegian stranglehold which dates back to 2002

Austria's Matthias Mayer said his hip was still "blue" with bruising after a heavy crash this week but he shrugged off the injury to end Norwegian dominance in the men's super-G on Friday. Mayer has been on the physio table after he came down painfully and slid head-first into a barrier, also knocking over a bystander, during the slalom in the men's combined on Tuesday. But the Sochi 2014 downhill champion recovered to produce a blistering run in the super-G and break a Norwegian stranglehold on the event which stretches back to 2002. Norwegian defending champion Kjetil Jansrud was on top until Mayer seized the lead with a descent of 1min 24.44sec. Switzerland's Beat Feuz took silver, 0.13sec adrift, while Jansrud had to settle for bronze. "It was something special for me, especially when I think about the last days," Mayer said. "I had a lot of work to do with my physiotherapist because of my hip. "I was not thinking about it today, just focused on my skiing, focused on my run and when I was going for my finish jump I knew I had a good run... it was just amazing." He added: "My hip is getting better, it's still blue but it was good to ski today." Mayer trumps his father, Helmut, who won super-G silver in 1988 -- a medal which was on display in family home as he was growing up. "He won it in 1988 in Calgary, I was born in 1990 so I saw it my whole lifetime in our living room. Just happy to have my own now," Mayer said. It was a particularly sweet victory for Mayer, who failed to finish the super-G at Sochi 2014 and also at last year's world championships. In between those two events, he fractured a vertebra in 2015. - 'We don't know the hills' - Norwegian skiers had won five of the eight previous Olympic super-G races, including the last four, and appeared to have locked up another victory when Jansrud bombed down in 1.24:62. But Mayer, 27, mastered the course to outpace Jansrud by 0.18sec before downhill world champion Feuz, the next man to descend, grabbed second place. France's Blaise Giezendanner took a surprise fourth position after briefly occupying second place, while Norway's Axel Lund Svindal, who won the downhill on Thursday, was fifth. There was disappointment for America's four-time Olympian Ted Ligety, who won his first World Cup race in Pyeongchang in 2006, as he failed to finish his run. Strong winds have played havoc with the schedule in Pyeongchang and organisers are playing catch-up with the alpine events, meaning a demanding few days for the racers. "It's always very tough, especially when the races are in such a short gap apart," said the triumphant Mayer. "We don't know the hills, that always makes us worry, especially in super-G because we only have little training and that makes this medal for me so special." Jansrud's bronze puts him in joint third place in the all-time list of Olympic skiing medallists, behind only countryman Kjetil Andre Aamodt and America's Bode Miller. Norway have ruled the physically demanding super-G in Olympic competition since the turn of the century, winning in 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014, as well as 1992. Friday's race was held over the Jeongseon Downhill course, which plunges 650m in altitude over two kilometres (1.24 miles) in a scenic valley in the Pyeongchang mountains.