Odermatt edges Sarrazin in World Cup downhill marred by serious crash for Kilde
Norwegian the 2nd skier in as many days that has needed to be airlifted
Marco Odermatt won another duel with Cyprien Sarrazin in a World Cup downhill that was marred Saturday by a serious crash for their biggest rival Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who was airlifted to a hospital.
Odermatt and Sarrazin were much faster than any other racer, starting back-to-back just minutes before Kilde crashed within sight of the finish of the longest downhill on the World Cup circuit.
Kilde, the overall World Cup champion in 2020 and long-time partner of American star Mikaela Shiffrin, had lengthy treatment on his right leg while laying flat next to the finish line.
It was a tiring third straight day of speed racing at Wengen, Switzerland's most storied ski venue. On Friday, 2021 overall champion Alexis Pinturault of France was airlifted after sustaining a season-ending knee injury in a crash.
"Yes, I think it's too much with three races," Odermatt told Swiss broadcaster RTS, after his good friend Kilde was among seven of the top-30 starters Saturday who did not finish. "A lot of crashes, yes, perhaps it's too much."
WATCH | Kilde airlifted after crash at Wengen:
The 31-year-old Kilde is renowned as one of the strongest ski racers, yet had been fighting sickness this week in Wengen before placing third in both the shorter downhill Thursday and a super-G Friday.
An unusually intense race schedule at Wengen — with the first downhill replacing once canceled last month at Beaver Creek, Colorado — was to peak with the classic Lauberhorn event Saturday over a full 4.3-kilometer (2 2/3-mile) course.
Odermatt and Sarrazin traded wins when they finished 1-2 ahead of Kilde on the previous two days and were far ahead of all rivals Saturday.
Odermatt's winning time of just over 2 minutes, 25 seconds is about a full half-minute more than any other downhill this season. Sarrazin was 0.59 seconds back, and third-place Dominik Paris trailed by 1.92, a massive gap in men's downhill.
Kilde started making errors more than two minutes into his run approaching the twisting final section. He was unbalanced on his skis entering the curves then made another error entering the left-hand turn down into the finish.
"It's three days of racing here and we finish with the longest [race," said Sarrazin, who was second Thursday and won the super-G when his France teammate Pinturault crashed. "Three days is really hard physically."
"Again, it's a bad feeling like with Alexis yesterday," said Sarrazin, who won his first career downhill last month at Bormio, Italy, where Odermatt was second.
Odermatt's 31st career World Cup race win was his second in downhill after victory Thursday.
WATCH | Odermatt claims another World Cup downhill win at Wengen:
The 26-year-old Swiss star extended his points lead in both the season-long downhill standings and the overall contest where he is the two-time defending champion. Pinturault and Kilde won the two overall titles before Odermatt.
The speed racers now move to the classic Austrian downhill venue Kitzbuhel where the Hahnenkamm race Saturday is the most feared and prized on the men's circuit.
Racers enjoyed near-perfect racing conditions on the picture postcard Lauberhorn hill with more cloudless bright blue skies and temperatures at -2 C.
The snow surface was faster than in the downhill Thursday with a top speed of 150.4 kph (93.5 mph) clocked by American Ryan Cochran-Siegle on the Hanneggschuss straight about two minutes into the course. Cochran-Siegle placed ninth, trailing 2.77 behind the winner.
The fastest straight at Wengen is where Johan Clarey of France in 2013 set a World Cup speed record of 161.9 kph. The course has since been amended to curb speeds.
The fourth race at Wengen is a slalom on Sunday that the speed racers will skip.
WATCH | Previewing the 2024 World Cup alpine skiing classic races with Sofia Goggia:
