Feller was calm when returning to the place of success despite two failures in Sölden (RTL) and Levi (Slalom). “They were two different disciplines. In Sölden I was pleasantly surprised with the speed. And you can even do a slalom in the sand if you’re in a good mood.”
And he’s in a good mood, emphasized last year’s ball winner. Reassurances like “We’ll stick with you, it’ll be okay” recently amused him to some extent. “My form is great. Don’t worry, it’s definitely not a form crisis. I feel extremely comfortable on the slalom skis,” said Feller.
Stay calm despite the Levi debacle
In Levi, the Austrians experienced a rebuff with Adrian Pertl in 15th place as the best. “We must, we should deliver. But it’s no use burying your head in the sand right now,” said head coach Marko Pfeifer. “We will continue to remain calm and we won’t let anything come up from outside.” Instead, he recalled the previous year. “We should take the spirit of the triple victory with us,” said Pfeifer. “A podium would be a really nice thing.”
GEPA/Mathias Mandl
In imperial weather, Feller was in a class of his own in 2023, especially in the first round. From his huge lead of 1.16 seconds over the eventual runner-up Schwarz, who continues to work on his comeback, he needed almost everything in the final. Because after Schwarz, who was in fifth place after the first round, set his best running time, climate activists stormed the finish area.
Gstrein mourned possible Stockerl
As visibility worsened, all of the riders except Feller were passed through – Fabio Gstrein, who was third at halftime, was also one of those who suffered. A year later, the Ötztal native remembers what he considered a “pointless action” relatively emotionlessly, but after finishing eighth he was occupied with “what if” questions. “If you get on the podium there, the season might turn out differently.”
TV note
Sports on Sunday with Marcel Hirscher, among others. The ski star in a big interview.
Sunday, 6 p.m., ORF1
Gstrein finished in the top ten in five of the ten slaloms of the season, but was unsuccessful in chasing his first career podium until the end. But he doesn’t want to put himself under any particular pressure or even stress. “Consistently finish in the top ten, that’s not valued enough in Austria. The podium will come, Manu (Feller) also had to turn 31 before he started winning,” said the 27-year-old.
Hirscher wants to know more
Marcel Hirscher has won 32 World Cup slaloms, but he doesn’t yet know the Gurgl slalom. This race could have a groundbreaking character. After Levi, the question arose as to whether 46th place was due to a mistake in the material or whether the 35-year-old had to fear for the competitiveness he had already shown in the giant slalom in the dense slalom field. Hirscher recently said that he doesn’t want to make such an “idiot” of himself again, but his Gurgl start is fixed, as his media spokesman confirmed.
Henrik Kristoffersen confirmed that the Van Deer skis basically worked on the Finnish ice with second place behind the Frenchman Clement Noel. As the Norwegian said before Sölden, there is no excessive exchange between the current brand colleagues.
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