BORMIO, Sunday February 6, 12:20 AM,  Italy (AFP) - Speed king Bode Miller blitzed a bunch of favoured Austrian rivals to become the first American to win a world championship downhill crown here.

Compatriot Daron Rahlves took second place to give the United States their first ever one-two at the world championships, with defending champion Michael Walchhofer of Austria placing third to take the bronze medal.

Former slalom specialist Miller, who thus earned his fourth world championship win but his first in the downhill, clocked 1min 56.22sec to leave Rahlves in second place at 0.44.

Walchhofer, one of the last to start, could only finish 0.87 behind.
 
Miller began the championships by winning the men's super-G, where he beat Austrians Walchhofer and Benjamin Raich into the minor medals.

On Thursday the American, who was originally bidding for six gold medals here, saw his aims reduced when he didn't finish the combined after losing a ski in the downhill section of the event which also includes two slaloms.

He is now well-placed to win his aim of five gold medals, although on Saturday he admitted he wasn't completely happy with his performance.

"I made a few errors which cost me time on the lower part of the course," said Miller, who appeared to secure the correct tactic by starting early on the course following Friday's qualifying.

Miller started second from the field and his winning time was never beaten by the Austrians who all started in the final 10 skiers.

Miller is the overall World Cup leader for this season, and is also a double Olympic silver medallist from the combined and giant slalom at the 2002 Salt Lake City games.

Austria's Hermann Maier, considered among the favourites though he had a spectacular fall in Friday training, could only finish in 17th place.

Britain's Finlay Mickel also scored an upset when the Scot finished in 11th place, missing the top ten by only one hundredth of a second after Frenchman David Poisson and Johann Grugger, the winner of two World Cup downhills this season, tied for ninth place.

The Austrian contingent will be asking questions of their top men, who were expected to grab at least one other podium place on the blue riband event of the competition.  

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