Odermatt continues Swiss roll with downhill win in Wengen / Photo: © AFP
Odermatt continues Swiss roll with downhill win in Wengen
Marco Odermatt bounced back from a disappointing super-G a day earlier to win Saturday's downhill race with a thrilling performance in Wengen.
The 27-year-old, who only finished seventh on Friday, appeared to have given it away with a careless last sector but somehow did enough to clinch victory, his time of 2 minutes 22.58 seconds, edging out fellow-Swiss Franjo von Allmen by 0.37sec.
Slovenian Miha Hrobat, who started with bib number 1 and finished third in the downhill at Beaver Creek, completed the podium at 0.57sec.
It was Odermatt's second downhill success this season after Val Gardena and his 43rd in the World Cup.
Having already won the two downhills contested in Wengen last year, he also became the first skier to win three consecutive downhills in the Swiss resort, to the delight of the 40,000 spectators present on Saturday, a new attendance record.
Odermatt, winner of the last three World Cups, is now 82 points clear of Von Allmen, who collected his first World Cup win in Friday's super-G, at the head of the downhill standings and 292 ahead of Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen in the overall.
His victory also means that Swiss skiers have now won six of the last eight speed races. Von Allmen's second place also gave them their fourth downhill double this season.
The race, which started late because of wind on the piste, was interrupted twice when Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr, second on Friday in the super-G, and Frenchman Blaise Giezendanner both crashed heavily.
Kriechmayr was able to get up on his own but limped away from the finish area, while Giezendanner had to be airlifted out, apparently with a knee injury.
Another Frenchman Cyprien Sarrazin had a serious crash at the end of December in Bormio. He suffered a serious head injury and began a long period of rehabilitation.
T.Cunningham--TNT
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