Status: 01/26/2022 07:18 a.m
Linus Straßer has won the 25th edition of the night slalom on the Schladminger Planai and underpins his gold ambitions at the Olympic Games in Beijing.
Linus Straßer from Munich won the last race of alpine skiers before the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. At the floodlight spectacle on the Planai in Schladming, Austria, he won the slalom competition on Tuesday (01/25/2022) after an outstanding performance with 1:46:00 minutes ahead of the surprise second Atle Lie McGrath from Norway (+0.03 sec.) and local hero Manuel Feller (+0.39).
Straßer: “Skiing is a brutal sport”
For Straßer it is the third World Cup victory of his career. Last year he had already won the slalom competition in Zagreb, in 2017 he triumphed at the City Event in Stockholm. He is also the first German to stand on top of the podium at the night classic in Schladming. After his coup, the slalom specialist is also one of the medal candidates at the Winter Games in Beijing.
“After the first round I said I’d try to do my thing again in the second, which I did really well,” said the beaming winner after the race in BR: “Skiing is a brutal sport. I’m enjoying it extremely. It are mostly runs in which you have to go all-in. I was able to implement that very well.”
After up to 20 centimeters of fresh snow, a crisp to icy slope awaited the drivers at the anniversary race in the Ennstal. Kristoffer Jakobsen, who started the race with starting number nine, delivered a fantastic drive on the 596-meter-long track in the first race and put himself ahead of Guiliano Razzoli (+0.58 seconds) and the two third-placed Lucas Braathen and Clement Noel ( +0.67) to the top. Straßer also had an excellent starting position in fifth place, just 0.15 seconds behind the podium.
Feller trumps, Jakobsen slips up
In the second round, Manuel Feller, who was still missing in Kitzbühel because of a positive corona test, came out on top. After a completely screwed up first run (28th), the local hero improved significantly and, thanks to a particularly strong performance in the last section of the course, took the lead, to the delight of the 1,000 Austrian fans present. At his 53.12 seconds, the competition bit their teeth in rows.
The podium in Schladming: Atle Lie McGrath (l), Linus Straßer (m) and Manuel Feller
Image: AP/Giovanni Auletta
Only McGrath pulverized the Austrian’s time. But Straßer went one better with his flawless second run and swung to the top with nerves of steel. Noel, Braathen and Razzoli were no longer able to counter, Jakobsen threaded in as the last starter and made Strasser’s triumph perfect.
The sixth World Cup race in slalom this season also produced a new winner. Just last weekend, the Brit David Ryding surprisingly won the competition in Kitzbühel.
DSV quintet missed the final
The other DSV athletes did not make it to the final. As 31st, David Ketterer just missed the second run by a hair’s breadth. Anton Tremmel, Alexander Schmid, Julian Rauchfuss and Fabian Himmelsbach dropped out early.
For the men, the race in Schladming was the last yardstick before the Olympic Winter Games. In Beijing, the German team will start with the downhill on February 6th. The slalom competition is scheduled ten days later. The women are still competing at the World Cup in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. There is a downhill run on Saturday before a Super-G takes place on Sunday.
Source: sportschau.de