Brosnan defends world championship title

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Australia's Troy Brosnan successfully defended his junior downhill world championship title on Sunday afternoon in Champery, Switzerland. David Trummer (Austria) won silver while Guillaume Cauvin (France) earned bronze."It was raining all morning but I wanted to attack it like it was dry," said Brosnan. "I didn't have any mistakes, and I won. I'm so happy. I can't believe it."

Cauvin was the first of the medallists to race. He was timed at 4:15.945.

Trummer set the bar high with a relatively early run down the slippery, wet mountain. He stopped the clock at 4:03.691 as the 20th rider to compete. He run came just after the racing action was paused for about one hour while an injured rider was taken off the mountain by a helicopter.

It wasn't until Brosnan went, as the third to last rider, that Trummer had to step down from the hot seat. The Aussie, who is also the junior downhill World Cup champion, finished in 3:51.503, just over 12 seconds faster than Trummer. He was the only junior to break four minutes.

Brosnan had a clean run overall. "I had a good run today and tried to stay smooth. The other juniors crashed, but I kept it on my two wheels and came across the line in front," he said.

"This season has been good. I got my first World Cup podium [including the elites - ed.] in Val di Sole and was eighth overall. Getting the junior world championship capped off a good season."

"I couldn't ask for more. Going into next season with the big boys is going to be fun," said Brosnan, who will move up in 2012.

Neko Mulally (United States) won silver last year, but finished 47th today. "I took it like a run I thought I could. It was really slick and I don't think anyone expected that. I got caught up in the nets toward the top, and I couldn't come back from that - I lost so much time getting out. It was a difficult race, but I tried my best."

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