Val d'Isere, France - John Kucera of Canada upset the favourites to win the men's downhill at the alpine ski world championships in Val d'Isere on Saturday.

Kucera posted 2 minutes 07.01 seconds, to edge super-g winner Didier Cuche of Switzerland by four hundredths of a second.

Fellow Swiss Carlo Janka was 0.94 seconds back in third place.

Kucera took advantage of an early start in a fog-interrupted race to give Canada a first-ever world championship downhill gold.