WENGEN, Switzerland (AP) — The powerful Switzerland men’s ski team won its home World Cup super-G on Friday, though it was Franjo von Allmen getting his first career win as Marco Odermatt had a rare poor result.
Odermatt finished outside the top five in a super-G for the first time since March 2022, 20 races ago, and trailed by more than one second in seventh place. The result was unofficial with low-ranked racers yet to start.
The 23-year-old Von Allmen added to his breakout season resume by finishing 0.10 seconds clear of Austrian veteran Vincent Kriechmayr.
Swiss teammate Stefan Rogentin was 0.58 back in third in the longest super-G of the season. Von Allmen’s winning time of 1 minute, 47.65 seconds was more than some downhills.
It suited downhill racers on a sun-bathed day on the storied Lauberhorn hill where Von Allmen topped 133 kph (83 mph) on the Haneggschuss straight.
Von Allmen was runner-up in the last two downhills in the past month and will be favored with Odermatt for the classic downhill race Saturday that is a signature event on the Swiss sports calendar. Odermatt won it a year ago.
Von Allmen has hugged in the leader’s box by American racer Ryan Cochran-Siegle who jokingly urged the emerging Swiss star to “party hard” late into the night.
-“A little bit, maybe,” the winner said later when asked about celebrating his first victory. “Especially as a Swiss guy it’s really something special.”
Three-time defending overall World Cup champion Odermatt had an uncharacteristically slow run in a super-G, and did not get his tactics right through a tight section of turns that always is key at Wengen.
Odermatt has 13 of his 42 career World Cup race wins in super-G and had his worst result in the discipline since a 28th-place finish at Kvitfjell, Norway, in March 2022.
“It was difficult for me today,” Odermatt told Swiss broadcaster RTS. “I wasn’t always on the right line and lost speed.”
Odermatt launched into a 34-meter (37-yard) jump off the Hundschopf cliff face that is a defining feature of the Lauberhorn that should be at its full 4.45-kilometer (2 ¾-mile) distance Saturday. It is the longest and quirkiest race on the World Cup circuit with a winning time around 2 minutes, 25 seconds.
After a hard crash into the safety fences for Sam Alphand, the French racer was able to stand up before being evacuated by helicopter from the course which is served by a rack railway line.
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