Franjo von Allmen stole the show from Marco Odermatt on the Lauberhorn and continued the Swiss series of successes in the Ski World Cup.
The 23-year-old celebrated his first World Cup victory at the Super-G in Wengen and duped the entire world elite with a dream ride. One of the keys for von Allmen was the Kernen-S, which was slightly modified for safety reasons and in which he found one of the fastest lines.
The trained carpenter, who has already come second in the downhill race twice this winter, came out on top in the shadow of the mighty mountain panorama of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, just ahead of former world champion Vincent Kriechmayr (+0.10 seconds) from Austria. Stefan Rogentin (+0.58), who had a serious fall during training, also came third, also a Swiss.
Alpine skiing: Baumann and Vogt miss points
Top favorite Odermatt (+1.04) only managed seventh place in front of 27,500 fans; he “didn’t really hit the core S,” he said on “SRF”. Romed Baumann (+2.43) missed the points, as did Luis Vogt.
When Odermatt reached the finish, von Allmen puffed out his cheeks with relief. “Really unbelievable, I can’t quite realize it myself and I’m trying to absorb it, the weather, the people,” he said and added: “I’m at a loss for words.” The American Ryan Cochran-Siegle called out to him with a view to the departure on Saturday (12:30 p.m./ARD and Eurosport): “Let it rip tonight!”
For Switzerland it was the ninth success in the 18th men’s race of the season, plus eleven more podium finishes. Of the 54 places on the podium, 20 were taken by Confederates.