Swiss Feuz wins downhill in Garmisch
GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN: Reigning downhill world champion Beat Feuz of Switzerland set down an Olympic marker yesterday with a thundering victory in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The 30-year-old Swiss clocked one minute, 55.39 seconds in the downhill as Vincent Kriechmayr of Austria and Italy’s Dominik Paris took joint second after they both finished at 0.18 secs back.
“I was completely at my limits at the end,” said a delighted Feuz following his third downhill World Cup win this season. With the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang beginning in two weeks, the Swiss now has a career total of seven downhill victories, with a further three in the Super-G, on the World Cup circuit.
Aksel Lund Svindal was first down the Kandahar course and held the lead until Feuz, fifth down the piste, shaved 0.28 seconds off his time on the lower section. Norwegian veteran Svindal, 35, eventually finished fourth. Last year’s downhill winner in Garmisch, Hannes Reichelt of Austria, was 0.12 quicker than Feuz’s time at the fourth time check, but faded to finish fifth at 0.43.
Likewise, Germany’s Andreas Sander charged down the course and was leading until the final turn, but a mistake cost him nearly a second and he crossed the line in eleventh place.
Olympic champion, Matthias Mayer of Austria, could only manage eighth. Local favourite, Germany’s Thomas Dressen, who celebrated the first downhill win of his career in Kitzbuhel last weekend, came within 0.53 of Feuz’s time to finish seventh. The racing continues on Sunday in the Bavarian Alps with the men’s giant slalom.
Meanwhile, world champion Tessa Worley tuned up for the Olympic Games with her first World Cup success of the season at Lenzerheide in Switzerland yesterday. The French star led after the first run and held on to beat German Viktoria Rebensburg by 0.07sec with Slovenia’s Mate Hrovat third at 1.45s. Worley was registering her 12th overall World Cup triumph ahead of the Pyeongchang Games which get underway on February 9. US ski star and Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin, came seventh, almost two seconds off the winner. Shiffrin retained her massive lead in the overall World Cup standings with Rebensburg now just 32 points clear of Worley in the giant slalom. —AFP