(Reuters) – Swiss skier Marco Odermatt cemented his status as an Olympic favourite with victory on home snow in Wengen, the last men’s Alpine World Cup super-G before next month’s Beijing Winter Games.
The 24-year-old overall World Cup leader completed the long Lauberhorn run in one minute 29 seconds to beat Norwegian rival Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, the leader of the super-G standings and winner of the previous three races, by 0.23.
It was his sixth win of the season and second in super-G after four in giant slalom.
Austria’s reigning Olympic champion Matthias Mayer was third on a sunny afternoon.
“It was a perfect day,” Odermatt told Swiss television. “I was already feeling good this morning, but it was very close with Kilde. He was quick at the top, but luckily on the bottom he lost time.”
Odermatt started seventh, with Kilde going 11th and with a clear target that he could not match on a physical and sweeping piste.
Germany’s Romed Baumann was fourth and Canada’s James Crawford fifth fastest.
Vincent Kriechmayr, Austria’s 2021 super-G and downhill world champion, returned from COVID-19 isolation to finish ninth.
Kriechmayr looks set to miss Friday and Saturday downhills, however, after being unable to take part in the two mandatory training sessions. There is no training required to race in the super-G.
Thursday’s race was originally scheduled for Lake Louise, Canada, and then Bormio before a further change.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
