Marco Odermatt also won the fifth giant slalom of the season. At the night race in Schladming, the Swiss fought his way to the front after a weak first run.
“Marco Odermatt is not invincible!” could have been the headline after the first run on the Planai in Schladming. But the overall World Cup leader taught everyone better. After eleventh place in the first run, Odermatt ultimately won ahead of the Austrian Manuel Feller (+0.05 seconds) thanks to an outstanding second run. Zan Kranjec from Slovenia came third (+0.29 seconds).
“He simply showed his class once again,” said DSV driver Alexander Schmid on BR television, paying respect to the Swiss. “With the mistake in the first round, he went one better in the second.” For Odermatt it was the fifth victory in the fifth race in the giant slalom. In the discipline rankings, he is lonely at the top.
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Odermatt’s comeback
In the first run in Schladming on Tuesday (January 23, 2024), the high-flyer did not have an optimal ride. Odermatt, who had won all four previous giant slaloms, started the second run in eleventh place, almost a second behind Manuel Feller.
The answer in the final was befitting and Odermatt-like. The scoreboard showed a lead of eight tenths of a second at the finish. In his second run (1:04.04 minutes) he was over a second faster than in the first run (1:05.99 minutes). In the end he won by five hundredths of a second, narrowly ahead of the Austrian Feller.
Schmid cannot confirm a strong first run
Alexander Schmid had created a solid starting situation for the final. The man from SC Fischen started the decisive race in seventh place. But the 29-year-old broke in there. His 33 hundredths lead on the starting slope quickly turned into over 1.5 seconds behind. In the end, Schmid, who tore his cruciate ligament last March, finished eleventh.
He narrowly missed his best performance of the season. He showed his best performance during his comeback in Val d’Isere at the beginning of December. At that time he took ninth place. Schmid was then satisfied with his performance. “Especially in the first round I took another step and showed that I can be at the front.”
Gratz unlucky
The remaining DSV runners did not make it into the top 30 runners and missed the second round. Fabian Gratz came closest. The man from TSV Altenau was only three hundredths of a second short of another ride. Anton Grammel (44th / +2.96), Jonas Stockinger (55th / +3.67) and Stefan Luitz (57th / +3.74) had no chance.