Gazeta Lodz - Odermatt masters Kitzbuehel super-G, Pinturault crashes out

Under blue skies and a bright sun, the 27-year-old Odermatt consolidated his place atop the overall and super-G standings after timing 1min 13.25sec down the 2.1km-long Streifalm course.

The victory was Odermatt's 44th on the World Cup circuit.

In a near-faultless display of aggressive skiing, Odermatt hit speeds in excess of 125km/h on a hard-packed, icy slope down Kitzbuehel's famed Hahnenkamm mountain.

Austria's Raphael Haaser took second, at 0.11sec, with Odermatt's Swiss teammate Stefan Rogentin rounding out the podium, a further 0.19sec adrift.

Odermatt scooped 100,000 euros ($104,800) for the win, with two further similar jackpots on offer for Saturday's downhill and Sunday's slalom at the upmarket Austrian resort.

"A big goal has been achieved," said Odermatt.

"My big goal is to win the downhill in Kitzbuehel."

But super-G racing was marred by a series of crashes, coming just days before the February 4-16 World Ski Championships in Saalbach, Austria, as racers struggled with some tight course setting and rough conditions.

The worst seemed to be for Pinturault, the Frenchman hitting icy ruts -- worsened by heavy rain on Thursday -- that bucked him backwards and forced him, sliding, into the safety netting.

- 'Pintu' whisked off -

Pinturault, making his comeback after rupturing a knee ligament a year ago, got swiftly to his feet, but on-slope help rushed to his side and quickly unbuckled him from his ski bindings.

The three-time Olympic medallist then slumped to the snow and he was eventually moved into a stretcher and evacuated by helicopter. Loriot then followed, seemingly having given himself a nasty faceplant at the same turn.

Those two incidents for the French team came after the harrowing accident in Bormio suffered by defending Kitzbuehel downhill champion Cyprien Sarrazin, whose season was cut short after undergoing surgery to treat internal bleeding in his head.

"It is sometimes a dangerous sport," acknowledged Johan Eliasch, head of the International Ski Federation (FIS) and candidate for the presidency of the International Olympic Committee.

"People are pushing their limits, accidents happen. It's very unfortunate," he told reporters, adding: "It's not the speed so much... sometimes it's very bad luck."

Another skier not making it down the Streifalm was Italian veteran Dominik Paris, a three-time winner in the downhill here and a super-G champion in 2015.

Others failing to finish included Austrians Lukas Feurstein and Otmar Striedinger, Czech Jan Zabystran, Switzerland's Lars Roesti, American Sam Morse and two more Frenchmen in the shape of Nils Alphand and Matthieu Bailet.

Local skiing legend Franz Klammer, a four-time winner in Kitzbuehel, told Austrian broadcaster ORF that racing was "at the limit".

"The snow is very aggressive, the skis are very aggressive. We should pull the ripcord when it comes to injuries."

Home favourite Vincent Kriechmayr was a non-starter, opting out of the Kitzbuehel weekend after suffering a medial ligament strain in his right knee in Wengen last week.

T.Chmielewski--GL