ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP. Beat Feuz surely is a patient and determined young man – four years after capturing three gold medals at the 2007 junior World Championships at Altenmarkt, in Austria, the 24-year-old Swiss finally confirmed his potential at Kvitfejll, in Norway, winning the next-to-last downhill prior the upcoming Finals at Lenzerheide.

The skier from Schangnau, in the Emmental region, also overcame a series of nasty knee injuries in past years to finally reach the top of the rankings on the ‘Olympiabakken’ course to beat by 5/100 of a second Canada’s newly crowned World Champion Erik Guay, while Austrian veteran Michael Walchhofer came in 3rd.

Another Austrian, Romed Bauman, was 4th ahead of the top favorite Didier Cuche, who lost a few points on Walchhofer in his battle for a forth downhill World Cup title. Other leaders lost more ground on the winners because of worsening visibility conditions. The sun was no longer shining for racers wearing bibs higher than 10, making it way more difficult for the group of top-guns starting later on.

Carlo Janka was 11th, Silvan Zurbriggen only 14th while local hero Aksel Lund Svindal finished a distant 28th a few hundredths behind Italy’s new star Christof Innerhofer.

Experts from the various teams were not really surprised by Feuz latest achievement as they have already been impressed by his strong results in recent downhills including three weeks ago where the Swiss reached an remarkable 9th place at the World Championships despite starting in the back of the pack when the course conditions were pretty rough. He has also been 7th at Chamonix where the clocked the fastest time in the downhill leg of the combined event. At Garmisch-Partenkirchen, he was 2nd in the combined downhill behind Norway’s Svindal.

“I felt confident prior the race, I knew I had a good chance for a top-position with my low start-number and I achieved a very clean and precise run,” he told the press afterwards. “I surely didn’t expect to win that race so it’s a pretty exciting moment for me, I have been rewarded for all the tough moments I had to go through a few years ago,” he added.

“Of course the race condition have been favourable for me today, but that’s part of the game in our sport, I have been racing very often too with high numbers which prevented me to show my potential. With the same number as today, I could have been for sure much faster at Garmisch-Partenkirchen.”

“To come ahead of the new World Champion and such a great specialist as Walchhofer is pretty incredible too. I guess I’ll always remember that day,” also said Feuz, who was again sidelined in December by another knee injury sustained at Lake Louise, in Canada without even crashing. He already lost two seasons in 2008 and 2009 because of torn ligaments at his left knee.

Erik Guay, who has reached his first downhill podium in this World Cup season, was more than pleased too. The champion from Quebec has been struggling in that event this season prior clinching gold in Bavaria last month. “Of course I could be upset to have lost the race by only a few hundredths but on the other hand it’s great to have been able to confirm my recent victory in Germany with this podium result,” he said. “I lost several weeks after the races at Val Gardena because of my bad back so I can be very satisfied with my recent performances,” Guay also commented.

“I have a good chance now to qualify in downhill for the Finals at Lenzerheide, I was my main goal coming here. Apparently this place is good for our team which has done pretty well on that slope in recent seasons. It gives me much confidence for the coming races.”

A year ago, Erik Guay won the Super-G here which helped him to secure the crystal globe a week later during the Finals at Garmisch-Partenkirchen where he also dominated the last Super-G race.

This year Guay is not involved in any battle for a specialty standings – in downhill Cuche and Walchhofer remain in the lead before Saturday’s race. The Austrian veteran, who will end his career in a week, was extremely happy with his 3rd place which helps him to stay in the hunt for a fourth downhill globe. “This is a very important result for me, I have had such a frustrating period this year after my great wins in November and December,” he said. “I wanted to end the season and my career on a high note and I’m very happy to still have a chance to fight for the cup until the Finals. The conditions were difficult for the late starters because of the poor visibility. It was pretty dark when I started but at least I managed to be faster than Didier Cuche who was skiing in the same conditions. It’s good for my moral.”

Another downhill is planned in Saturday on the ‘Olympiabkken’ course – with many racers aiming for revenge. Good for the show.

Contributed by PkL
FISalpine.com
Friday 11 March 2011