World Ski Championships – Giant, gold encore for Odermatt. Tenth of the Vine

After the gold in the downhill Marco Odermatt hits a phenomenal encore in giant slalom. Behind Marco Schwarz after the first heat, the Swiss was the protagonist of a second part of the race always on the attack and very fast. The gold comes with a time of 2’34″04, 32/100 better than the other Swiss Loic Meillard and 40 faster than Schwarz, who lost the gold in the final wall

The race

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The second heat was faster and streamlined, full of emotions and confirmations: Manuel Feller, fifth after the first heat, went out a few doors from the finish line. Loic Meillard, winner of the last giant Cup in Schladming took the lead thanks to the best time in the heats. The Slovenian Kranjec slipped off the podium, Marco Odermatt took the lead and Schwarz, last to start, was unable to defend his best time, finishing in third place. At the foot of the podium the Austrian Brennsteiner (at 76/100), the Norwegian Kristoffersen (at 96/100) and the Slovenian Kranjec (at 1″34), while the host Alexis Pinturault is seventh at 1″67.

The blues

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Filippo Della Vite is the best of the Azzurri, in line with the progress already shown in the World Cup: 21 years old in October, he is 10th at 2″40 from Odermatt. Great comeback also for Giovanni Borsotti, who goes back from 18th to 11th place (at 2″46) thanks to a sumptuous second heat. De Aliprandini finishes fourteenth (at 2″91): “I didn’t feel well on the wall, but I bring home good sensations and points for the top 15. I can still get some satisfaction out of it”. The finish was lethal for Alex Vinatzer, he slipped out 4 doors from the finish: “It wasn’t a bad race, it’s a shame I gleaned on the wall and then let them go too far into the wall. But the giant remains a goal.”

Phenomenon

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Marco Odermatt is the fifth skier in history to hit the downhill-giant double at the World Championships after Toni Sailer (1956 and 1958), Zeno Colò (1950), Jean-Claude Killy (1968) and Aksel Lunde Svindal (2007). Olympic gold medalist in Beijing 2002, he dominated the specialty this season with 4 wins in 6 World Cup races (he did not participate in the last one, in Schladming, due to pain in his left knee).