Kristoffersen sweeps men's giant slalom in Slovenia on heels of slalom double
Marco Odermatt all but secures overall World Cup season title with 3rd-place finish
Henrik Kristoffersen won his second men's World Cup race in two days Sunday, while Olympic champion Marco Odermatt finished third in the penultimate giant slalom of the season to all but clinch the overall title.
Kristoffersen's double came two weeks after the Norwegian also won two slaloms in two days in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
"Very good weekend, for sure. We're skiing really good. It doesn't matter if it's straight, turny, or whatever it is, it's a pretty good day," Kristoffersen said from Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, after posting a two-run time of two minutes 18.13 seconds.
It was his 28th career victory and seventh in GS.
WATCH | Kristoffersen takes giant slalom by 0.23 seconds over Brennsteiner:
Austria's Stefan Brennsteiner (2:18.36) finished 0.23 seconds behind for a career-best second.
Odermatt, who had already locked up the discipline title by finishing second in Saturday's race, was fastest in the opening run but dropped to third in 2:18.40.
Calgary's Erik Read took top Canadian honours over Toronto's Trevor Philp, finishing 17th in 2:20.54 while the latter slipped to 20th (2:20.67) after placing 13th on Saturday.
Odermatt increased his lead in the overall standings to 329 points from Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, the 2019-20 overall champion. It leaves the Norwegian with only a mathematical chance to win the Crystal Globe as overall season winner, with just one race in each of the four disciplines remaining at the World Cup Finals in Courchevel next week. Each race win is worth 100 points.
Confident in winning Crystal Globe
"Even when Kilde wins three times, I don't believe he will also score points in the slalom," Odermatt told Swiss broadcaster SRF.
Neither Odermatt nor Kilde has ever raced in a World Cup slalom. That leaves just three events at the finals where they were expected to score points — downhill, super-G, and GS.
However, both would be eligible to start in the slalom next Sunday, the final race of the season.
Even Odermatt is starting to believe that the big Crystal Globe, widely regarded the sport's most important prize, will be his for the first time.
"It's been looking good for a while. But after Kvitfjell, I became a little bit nervous," said Odermatt, referring to speed races in Norway last week. While he picked up just 39 points in total from three events, Kilde racked up 225.
But adding 140 points for placing second and third, respectively, in two giant slaloms this weekend and locking up the GS discipline title gave Odermatt a relaxed feeling ahead of the season-ending week.
"I hoped for this, that was the plan for this weekend. Now I am looking forward to three nice races," said Odermatt, who is set to become the first overall champion from Switzerland since Carlo Janka won the title in 2010.
Kilde skipped the two races in Slovenia this weekend and opted to prepare for Wednesday's downhill race in France, where he can win the discipline title.
The first downhill training in Courchevel, some 900 kilometres away from Kranjska Gora, is scheduled for Monday morning at 10 a.m.
With files from CBC Sports
