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Record-chasing Vonn cruises to Cortina downhill victory

(Reuters) - Lindsey Vonn cruised to her 79th career World Cup victory in the Cortina downhill on Saturday, finishing ahead of Liechtenstein's Tina Weirather and fellow American Jackie Wiles. Vonn stepped up her preparations for next month's Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang with a flawless effort to finish 0.92 seconds ahead of Weirather and 0.98 seconds in front of Wiles for her 40th downhill victory. The 33-year-old, who is the most successful World Cup women's skier of all time, also inched closer to Swedish men's great Ingemar Stenmark's record of 86 World Cup victories. On Friday, Vonn was second on the podium behind Sofia Goggia after an error but it was the Italian -- victorious in the last two downhill events -- who lost control during her run on Saturday and did not finish. Wiles, meanwhile, made an acrobatic recovery to record her second career podium, while Austrian Ramona Siebenhofer finished fourth with her best time of the season. (Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris)