Tina Maze celebrates after winning the women's downhill gold

Tina Maze of Slovenia won the women’s downhill at the World Championships at Beaver Creek in the United States.

The World Cup leader produced a brilliant display over the difficult middle portion of the sun-drenched Raptor course as she clocked a time of one minute, 45.89 seconds.

Maze, who shared Olympic downhill gold in Sochi with Switzerland's Dominique Gisin, claimed her eighth world championship medal, and her third gold, charged home to overtake Austria's Anna Fenninger.

Fenninger, the winner of the Super-G on Tuesday when Maze was second, had set the early standard by clocking 1:45.91.

"It's nice to be here and ski like that," Maze said. "This makes it fun. I'm happy I can be part of it."

Switzerland's Lara Gut was third in 1:46.23, while American Lindsey Vonn finished fifth with a time of 1:46.94.

Vonn, the gold medal favourite after topping the World Cup podium five times in 10 races this season, briefly led early on but lost time over the third and fourth intervals, although she was still greeted with a massive roar as she crossed the finishing line.

"Honestly, I did the best I could," said Vonn. "I fought the whole way down. I was so focused.

"I visualised the course a thousand times. It just wasn't a great run. It was a good run, but not a top-five worthy run. There's not a lot to be sad about."