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Maria Riesch kept alive her slim hopes of wresting the overall World Cup title away from good friend Lindsey Vonn.

She began the season finals at Garmisch-Partenkirchen with a downhill victory.

Riesch's winning time of one minute 34.82 seconds was good enough to beat Vonn (1:35.30) into second place.

With three events remaining, and 300 points therefore available, Vonn leads by 225 and is as good as assured of the overall crystal globe to add to the downhill and Super-G titles she had already clinched.

Sweden's Anja Paerson completed today's podium with a run of 1:35.95.