Vincent Kriechmayr with anger in his stomach to victory in the Super-G in Val Gardena

Marco Schwarz rounded off the red-white-red top result in fifth place (+0.13 seconds).

With a clear increase in performance compared to Thursday, Kriechmayr secured the first Austrian Super-G victory in almost exactly 21 months; he triumphed in Courchevel on March 17, 2022. Together with Hemetsberger, he also celebrated Upper Austria’s first double victory in the World Cup. “It was a lot better than yesterday. I took a lot more risks. It was rather easy, so you have to be at the last point,” said the 32-year-old happily.

Until Kriechmayr’s trip, Hemetsberger had been able to speculate about his first World Cup victory, but it didn’t quite work out. “The two hundredths are bitter,” admitted Hemetsberger and said to Kriechmayr with a wink during the ORF interview: “He doesn’t grant me anything.” But he couldn’t complain about his performance. “I noticed that it was a relatively fast run with few curves,” reported the 31-year-old, who was also right in his choice of material. “Today we dug out one of the oldest skis we have, so one of the fastest, which helps on the snow.”

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Schwarz, who finished 40th without any points on Thursday, drew a conciliatory conclusion – even though he was pushed out of fourth place by Frenchman Cyprien Sarrazin (start number 27) when the sun came up. “It was significantly better than yesterday,” explained the Carinthian. “I already know where to look for the gap. I hopped relatively far on the penultimate jump and was a bit too far to the right on the last one.” In any case, he will get involved again at the departure on Saturday (11.45 a.m./live ORF one). “I still have a score to settle.”

In the overall World Cup ranking, Odermatt now took the lead with his third place, Schwarz is 15 points behind in second place. He didn’t take the narrow deficit too seriously. The ride was very good, especially at the top. I didn’t know whether the set-up was right, so I’m very happy. Alexander Aamodt Kilde, who was one of the favorites, had no chance and, coming in 37th, didn’t even make it into the top 30 – also because numerous drivers with high starting numbers posted good times. “I couldn’t let the ski go so well, I didn’t have a good feeling. It was a bit strange today,” said the Norwegian.

The ÖSV festival was overshadowed by the fall of Andreas Ploier, who fell in the lower part with start number 26. The Upper Austrian may have injured his knee and had to be carried off the slopes. However, the ÖSV has already given the all-clear regarding a more serious injury.