“It’s almost embarrassing”: Austrians in Wengen are historically bad

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Devilish guy Marco Odermatt (26) once again drives the entire competition to the ground and in Wengen takes over half a second from second-placed Cyprien Sarrazin (28) and more than eight-tenths from third-placed Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (30 ). For the first time, the Nidwalden resident triumphed on the Lauberhorn.

When you look at the podium, you notice something else: there is no Austrian there. For the first time in history, none of our neighbors made it onto the podium during the first four runs of the winter. The best comes in eighth place, Otmar Striedinger (32), 1.25 seconds behind. “I’m quite happy with my performance,” he says.

Something that the nominally best of the team, Vincent Kriechmayr (32), cannot claim – on the contrary. The team leader follows in 13th place, 1.62 seconds behind – directly behind the Swiss trio Murisier, Hintermann and Monney.

“It’s almost embarrassing”

After the race, Kriechmayr shook his head in an interview with ORF and didn’t know what he wasted so much time on. As bad as it was, he didn’t think his race was real. Because he almost crashed into the net during training in the Kernen-S, he lost a lot of speed, but that was not the only reason. “That was probably a little too little everywhere,” is how he assesses the first descent.

Kriechmayr even apologizes for his achievement: “I have already won races with my skis. The material is excellent. The way I left them (the outfitter and the service guy) hanging – it’s almost embarrassing. Besides him and Striedinger, only two of the Austrian team made it into the top 30: Stefan Babinsky (27) in 15th and Daniel Danklmaier (30) in 23rd.

The Super-G follows on Friday

He has proven many times that Kriechmayr can do better. Three weeks ago, the 2021 downhill world champion won the Super-G in Val Gardena. He then finished fourth in the same discipline in Bormio and is now second in the discipline rankings behind Odermatt after two races.

Can he catch the Swiss on Friday (11.20 am) in the third Super-G of the season? In any case, Kriechmayr did not sound confident after the last Super-G in Bormio. He said, “On one hand, it is a sight to behold to watch the Odi. On the other hand, it hurts a lot if you regularly get burned for more than a second.”

Source : Blick