Sarrazin was the fastest on the classic track on the Hahnenkamm until the last sector, finishing 0.05 seconds ahead of Florian Schieder. The Italian was second in Kitzbühel last year as well, he did not reach the podium the other time. Before Sarrazin’s comet this season, only the legendary Jean-Claude Killy (1967) and Luc Alphand (1995 and 1997) had won the race in Kitzbühel.
“It’s an amazing feeling. When I crossed the finish line, I enjoyed it tremendously. I said to myself: scream as much as you can! I’ll probably be speechless tomorrow,” said Sarrazin, who was a giant slalom specialist for a long time and switched to speed disciplines In last years. “It was far from a perfect ride today, but I felt good physically and I put my heart into it at the bottom,” he added.
Marco Odermatt, the leader of the World Cup and the discipline, who won both races last week on home soil in Wengen, took third place, 34 hundredths of a second behind Sarrazin. The Swiss skier scored his best result in Kitzbühel, pushing the American Ryan Cochran-Siegle off the podium by a hundredth of a second.
Sarrazin, who had never been on the podium in a speed race before this season, followed up his Bormio triumph in December with a super-G victory in Wengen. On the Lauberhorn, the native of Gap was second behind Odermatt in both downhills and is only 26 points behind the Swiss in the order of the discipline. In the overall rating, the reigning two-time winner has a huge lead of 516 points over second-placed Sarrazin.
The race started an hour behind schedule due to light snow and poor visibility. The best skiers started the race on the 3312-meter-long track in good conditions, but as time went on, visibility began to deteriorate.
The second downhill is held in Kitzbühel on Saturday, and the program ends with a slalom on Sunday. Jan Zabystřan will not start in Austria because he injured the collateral ligaments in his knee in Wengen. However, the best Czech downhill skier should still return to the season.
2024-01-19 13:27:31
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