Italian Mattia Casse finished first and second in the two downhill training sessions in Val Gardena to show he is in top form. Today he confirmed that he is one of the fastest skiers in the world right now by winning the Super G on the Saslong in Val Gardena. He took his first victory in the Alpine Ski World Cup at the age of 34 in his 200th Alpine Ski World Cup race.
This is the second time he has finished in the top three in the South Tyrolean resort. The Italian claimed one of his three previous World Cup podiums in Val Gardena. On 17 December, Casse finished third in the downhill on the Saslong.
"I like this snow. Today I pushed hard. I skied well also in Beaver Creek but made a lot of mistakes. My skis ran well on the rather soft surface, now I'm trying to attack tomorrow too," Casse said.
US skier Jared Goldberg finished second, just 0.01 seconds behind Casse, to claim his first Alpine World Cup podium in 168 races at the age of 33. His previous best result was a fourth place in the Kitzbühel downhill in January 2023.
"I’m fired up. I skied how I wanted to. Everything felt so good. I felt like I was going fast. I was a little worried, there was a hold around bib 18 and I wasn’t sure if the track would slow down. I pushed hard and was able to block that out. I was definitely going fast down the bottom, holding a tuck where I could, that helped," Goldberg said.
Marco Odermatt finished in third place 0.43 seconds behind Casse, his 4th podium finish this season. Since 17 March 2022, when he finished 28th in Kvitfjell, Odermatt has finished in the top 5 in 18 super-G races, 16 of them on the podium.
"My run was very good, I skied the race the way I wanted. The top and last sections were very good. In the middle, I lost a bit of time. I don’t really know why, but I will analyze it. Casse was clearly the strongest, he deserved to win," Odermatt said.
24-year-old Norwegian Fredrik Moeller confirmed that he is one of the skiers to watch by finishing in fourth place, 0.54 seconds behind the Italian, the same place he finished in the first Super-G of the season in Beaver Creek.
Last season's winner in Val Gardena, Vincent Kriechmayr, was the best Austrian skier in 12th place. Before today, there had only been five times that no Austrian skier had finished in the Top 10 in a World Cup Super G race. The last time this happened was on 1 March 1992 in Morioka, Japan, when the best Austrian, Armin Assinger, finished 13th.
The Italian tour of the Men's Alpine Ski World Cup continues with 3 races in the next 3 days. Tomorrow is the Downhill on the Saslong in Val Gardena, followed by a Giant Slalom and a Slalom on the Gran Risa in Alta Badia on Sunday and Monday. The speed weekend in Bormio follows in the New Year's week.
Comments