Seger just misses podium at world super-G
Canadian’s late-day run just 0.42 seconds behind race winner Kriechmayr
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, ITALY—Canada’s Brodie Seger finished a career-best fourth in the men’s super-G at the alpine skiing world championships Thursday, missing the podium by four one-hundredths of a second.
The top three faced some anxious moments when the unheralded Canadian came down as a late starter. The North Vancouver, B.C., skier, wearing bib No. 28, was only a few tenths off the lead throughout his run and finished 0.42 behind winner Vincent Kriechmayr of Austria. Germany’s Romed Baumann was second, with France’s Alexis Pinturault third.
Seger’s run bumped defending champion Dominik Paris into fifth place.
Seger returned to the World Cup circuit just last week after being sidelined for a month with a shoulder injury.
“I’m incredibly fired up right now,” Seger said. “This has been such a strange and difficult season dealing with my first real injury ever when I felt like my skiing was in a really good spot. Going through my first surgery and first rehab. Pushing as hard as I could to get back for this event.
“I am just so thankful for everyone who helped me get back to good health.”
Jack Crawford of Toronto was 14th and Jeff Read of Canmore, Alta., was 18th, both career-best performances at the worlds.
Kriechmayr overcame a tricky course and high expectations to win.
Starting fifth on a course never featured on the men’s World Cup circuit, the Austrian mastered the difficult Canalone passage about 20 seconds into his run, where the first three starters all missed a gate and skied out.
Kriechmayr entered the races as one of the favourites. He won the last two super-Gs on the World Cup circuit and leads the season discipline standings.
Many racers after him chose a similar race line approaching the Canalone, but no one matched Kriechmayr’s pace on the rest of the course. Only 34 of the 56 starters made it to the finish. He didn’t expect his lead to hold up.
“I watched the guys before me with bibs 1, 2, 3, and they all missed that gate,” Kriechmayer said. “It rather felt like I had reduced my speed too much.”
He recently struggled with being labelled a favourite going into races.
In Kitzbuhel, he was seen fuming in the finish area after posting the fastest time in the last training session before the classic downhill race. He didn’t want to be burdened by expectations of winning.
Conditions were sunny but windy after all events on the opening three days were postponed because of bad weather.
“So far, so good,” Seger said. “I mean it was a strange first couple of days dealing with weather but we knew it was supposed to get colder and it was looking like we’d get some good weather.”