Vincent Kriechmayr considered until the last moment whether he should start the season on the Rettenbachferner this weekend. Yesterday his thumb went up. In four starts, speed specialist Kriechmayr only reached the second round – two years ago – as a giant slalom in Sölden and scored 24th World Cup points. Will his race next Sunday be more than just a warm-up exercise for the 2022/2023 ski winter?
“If that makes sense, I’ll be there,” said the 31-year-old from Gramastetten before the last training sessions on the glacier. Apparently he was satisfied with his times and counts on points on Sunday. Anyone who knows Kriechmayr knows that he would otherwise not race in a discipline that is not one of his core competencies.
At the training camp in Chile, the Mühlviertler is said to have shown a strong (early) form, as insiders know. Apparently he drew the right conclusions from the previous season, when not everything went according to plan. “You often want a bit more, get bogged down with the material, you’re too dogged. That was the case for me at one point last year,” says Kriechmayr, whose strong season finale with victories in downhill and super-G at the World Cup Finish in Courchevel after the highlight of the season with the Olympic Games in Beijing is almost a thing of the past. For the World Championships in Courchevel in February, however, these successes were already an announcement, even if Kriechmayr does not want to overestimate that. “We’re driving at a different time in Courchevel. The snow conditions will be different than in March.”
The second Upper Austrian contribution to the start of the World Cup comes with Elisa Mörzinger, also from the Mühlviertel. The 25-year-old spent the summer getting fit on her mountain bike, among other things.
ÖSV teams in Sölden: women (Saturday, 10 a.m., 1 p.m.): Nina Astner, Stephanie Brunner, Magdalena Egger, Franziska Gritsch, Ricarda Haaser, Katharina Huber, Magdalena Kappaurer, Katharina Liensberger, Elisa Mörzinger, Ramona Siebenhofer, Katharina Truppe. Men (Sunday, 10/13): Thomas Dorner, Manuel Feller, Patrick Feurstein, Raphael Haaser, Vincent Kriechmayr, Matthias Mayer, Dominik Raschner, Marco Schwarz
Source: Nachrichten
