Marco Odermatt on verge of overall Alpine skiing World Cup title after victory in Kranjska Gora
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Updated 11/03/2023 at 15:18 GMT
Marco Odermatt’s 10th victory of the Alpine skiing World Cup season has put him on the verge of a second consecutive overall Crystal Globe. Odermatt underlined his status as the skier to beat in giant slalom with a nervy win in Kranjska Gora. Another giant slalom takes place on Sunday, before the World Cup finals in Soldeu, Andorra begin on Wednesday as the season comes to a close.
'He's done it again' - Odermatt seals World Cup Giant Slalom victory in Kranjska Gora
Marco Odermatt all-but confirmed his second overall Alpine skiing World Cup title after he battled to another giant slalom victory in Kranjska Gora.
Odermatt was the class of the field in the first run but looked tired in the second leg and just did enough to beat Alexis Pinturault by 0.23 seconds to win his fifth giant slalom of the season.
Only Aleksander Aamodt Kilde could mathematically beat Odermatt to the overall Crystal Globe, but he’s not racing in Slovenia this weekend, so the Swiss skier is guaranteed to wrap up the title after Sunday’s giant slalom.
“It’s another perfect day for me,” said Odermatt. “Very, very warm conditions. It wasn’t easy to stay focused at the start.
“Everything was so soft, the boots and skis. It wasn’t easy to ski but I’m very happy I could win.”
Asked about whether he could secure the giant slalom title on Sunday, after opening up a 140-point lead over Henrik Kristoffersen, Odermatt answered: “It’s just done when it’s done.
“Henrik will try to beat me tomorrow, so I will try to hold on and take those points into the final week.”
In the first run, Odermatt had an advantage of 0.53 seconds to home hero Zan Kranjec, with Kristoffersen a further 0.01 of a second behind.
Stefan Brennsteiner, Pinturault and Marco Schwarz were the only other skiers within one second of Odermatt.
Home skier Stefan Hadalin set the early pace to beat in the second leg with a combined time of 2:19.67, which moved him up from 29th to 17th.
He held onto the lead for a while before Luca de Aliprandini finally knocked Hadalin off his perch when he went half a second faster, then Gino Caviezel had a flyer when he went to the top of the leaderboard by 1.03 seconds with eight skiers to go.
Lucas Braathen, Loic Meillard and Schwarz were all slower but Pinturault took full advantage of French coach Velez Romain setting the course by taking the lead by 0.88 seconds.
Brennsteiner went into second, then Kristoffersen displaced him but couldn’t beat Pinturault’s time as he went 0.14 slower than the Frenchman.
Kranjec couldn’t repeat his first-run performance as he looked tired in the final part of his effort, so ended up in fifth after Odermatt just held on to win with a very nervy second leg, which saw the Swiss star lose his 0.80 advantage over Pinturault, only to turn it around in the final seven gates.
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