Alpine skiing
Odermatt wins downhill in Wengen – Germans beaten
Marco Odermatt won a downhill race for the first time in Wengen. photo
© Gabriele Facciotti/AP/dpa
Marco Odermatt is the outstanding skier of today. Now he even wins in the downhill. The Germans, however, disappoint in Wengen.
After Odermatt has dominated the giant slalom for a long time and was recently successful in the Super-G, the 26-year-old now celebrated his first World Cup success in the downhill. The race in the Bernese Oberland was a replacement for the downhill run in Beaver Creek (USA) that was canceled at the beginning of December – the actual Lauberhorn downhill run is on Saturday, and a Super-G will be run on Friday.
Germans disappoint
The Germans were left behind in the first event of the week on the slightly shortened route and missed out on top 15 places. Romed Baumann only came in 18th (+2.02), Andreas Sander was 21st (+2.07), Simon Jocher (+2.38) and the former Kitzbühel winner Thomas Dreßen (+2.45) landed ranks 27 and 28.
There were no World Cup points for Josef Ferstl in 33rd place (+2.94), Luis Vogt in 48th place (+3.64) and Dominik Schwaiger in 52nd place (+3.98).
Odermatt was celebrated by the home fans. “I risked a lot and had a very, very good feeling,” he said at Eurosport. The Swiss is in impressive form: out of ten races he took part in this winter, he won six and finished on the podium in three more. A seventh place in the Val Gardena downhill was his worst result.