Intro:

Ryan Cochran-Siegle of the United States took gold in the men's downhill at the FIS Junior World Ski Championships in Roccaraso, Italy on Friday.

Switzerland occupied the rest of the podium with Ralph Weber taking the silver ahead of team-mate Nils Mani.

Script:

The FIS Junior World Ski Championships men's downhill took place in Roccaraso on Friday.

Ryan Cochran-Siegle was the first to go, watched by his mother - Barbara Cochran - who took women's slalom gold at the 1972 Sapporo Olympics.

The 20-year-old American had struggled on his two training runs, but he got it right when it mattered and he set what looked a competitive time of one minute 11.99 seconds.

Nils Mani of Switzerland finished sixth in last year's event in Crans-Montana, Switzerland and he was the third man to go.

Mani was hoping for a place on the podium and he gave himself every chance with second place, 0.49 seconds slower than Cochran-Siegle.

It soon became clear that the skiers near the top of the order were favoured as the course slowed due to the warm conditions.

Mani's team-mate Ralph Weber was one of the favourites for gold and he was just eight-hundredths of a second down on Cochran-Siegle at the final split.

But he was unable to make up the time required in the closing stages and had to settle for silver, just nine-hundredths away from gold and four-tenths ahead of compatriot Mani who took bronze.

So it was Cochran-Siegle who continued the family tradition.

Amazingly, he won with start bib number 1 which his mother had carried to Olympic gold 40 years ago.