Sarrazin gets fit faster than expected: should Odermatt still worry about the downhill ball?

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Marco Odermatt will certainly win the big ball for the overall World Cup and the small giant slalom ball, the Nidwalden resident will almost certainly win the Super-G ball (he is 81 points ahead of Vincent Kriechmayr for the last race). But the final could be very exciting in terms of discipline, which means the most for the three-time World Cup winner.

«Downhill is the highest discipline in the Alps. And because the downhills on the World Cup calendar are so different, it is also the most difficult to win this discipline classification. That’s why this ball would be particularly important to me,” says Odermatt.

Last week in Kvitfjell, Norway, after the final training, it seemed that the reigning world champion had also secured the downhill crystal. Reason: Odermatt’s last opponent, Cyprien Sarrazin, suffered a calf injury in a fall. The Kitzbühel winner was then examined by two doctors. One of the doctors was very skeptical about Sarrazin’s start at the World Cup finals in Saalbach.

No more snow training since Kvitfjell, but…

Since then, the 29-year-old has gone into hiding in France, and the French association is also keeping a low profile about Sarrazin’s rehab. But there is a Swiss man who is very well informed about this issue. His name: Patrice Morisod.

The Valais native, who once made Didier Cuche a great champion, was a downhill coach in France from 2009 to 2015 and is still in regular contact with those in charge of “L’Equipe de France”. “I spoke to Sarrazin’s coach last week,” Morisod reveals, explaining the details of this conversation: “Cyprien has never trained on snow since Kvitfjell and will not join his teammates at the speed camp in Zinal next week. Coach Fournier still speaks of a positive healing process and believes there is a good chance that Cyprien will be able to start in the descent in Saalbach on March 24.

Sarrazin is 41 points behind Odermatt in the battle for the downhill ball. In plain language, this means: if the “Skidane” from the southeast of the “Grande Nation” in Austria wins the last downhill of the season, Odermatt must finish at least third in the discipline rankings to win.

Source : Blick