Odermatt underlines super-G power with World Cup win at Crans-Montana / Photo: © AFP
Odermatt underlines super-G power with World Cup win at Crans-Montana
Marco Odermatt, who won the super-G crown at this month's world championships, provided further evidence of his dominance in the discipline with a victory in the World Cup event at Crans-Montana on Sunday.
The 27-year-old clocked 1 minute 21.53 seconds for his run down the 'Nationale' slope to finish 0.28sec ahead of fellow Swiss Alexis Monney with the Italian Dominik Paris 0.39sec behind Odermatt in third.
The home double for the Swiss followed their clean sweep of Saturday's downhill when Odermatt finished second behind Franjo Von Allmen with Monney again in third.
The Swiss, with their hair shaved since their exploits at the World Championships where they took 13 medals, including five gold, have now been on every podium in super-G this season.
They have also dominated the downhill with four doubles and one clean sweep in six events.
'Odi' was at his best although the soft snow and an easy course which has not hosted a men's World Cup event since 2012, and where the 2027 World Championships will be held, gave his opponents a chance to push him.
That made for an exceptionally close race with 16 competitors within a second of each other.
It was Odermatt's 45th World Cup win and his 15th in super-G. He now leads the discipline standings by 181 points ahead of the Italian Mattia Casse, who could only finish fifth.
He also benefited from his other super-G rivals misfiring. The Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr, who is third in the standings, could only finish 17th while the young Norwegian Fredrik Moeller lost his balance just before the line as he was pushing for a top-five finish.
With just two races left, Odermatt is the firm favourite to land a fourth consecutive super-G globe.
He is also in line for a fourth overall title. He is now a formidable 500 points ahead of Henrik Kristoffersen, who only competes in the slaloms and giants.
W.Baxter--TNT
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