Kriechmayr takes 5th place in the Kitz final training

The fastest in the second test run for the Ski World Cup downhill runs on Friday and Saturday (11.30 a.m./ORF 1) was the Frenchman Nils Allegre in 1:56.11 minutes. Kriechmayr was fifth and the best Austrian, 0.37 seconds behind, Christopher Neumayer 0.48 and Daniel Danklmaier 0.68. Stefan Babinsky was uninjured in a fall.

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As usual, times and placements are only of limited significance because many racers took a few turns shortly before the finish or crossed the line upright. This also applies to the Swiss Wengen double winner Marco Odermatt (+1.19).

“Basic speed back”

After being 3.62 seconds behind in the first training session, Kriechmayr was already more confident about the racing days. “At least I know that the basic speed is back. It wasn’t a flawless ride, but I pushed the limit much more than the competition. That’s what I wanted too. I wanted to see that it worked halfway,” said Kriechmayr. “The trip was good, but I still have a lot to improve on. Just as you shouldn’t overestimate what happened yesterday, you can’t overestimate it today either.”

Babinsky had a moment of shock when he felt the net before the traverse, but gave the all-clear: “Everything’s good so far. I’m glad nothing happened,” said the Styrian. “I think my hand got caught in the snow for a bit. Then I got an impulse and it just freaked me out.” No extra video layer will be necessary. “My ride up to that point was pretty good, I did pretty well on the local mountain. Of course I’ll look at a few that were fast down there. But I’m not going to do a doctoral thesis on it.”

Streif break on Thursday

While Otmar Striedinger (+2.83) quickly left the finish area due to a cold after a 43 m set in the mousetrap and the subsequent goal error, Daniel Hemetsberger (+1.32), who had left Wengen early, reported recovered. However, he feels his knee and needs a lot of physical therapy. “It’s okay, I can drive. But it irritates me when I’m in pain at the start, that’s not so great.” Overall, he noticed a step in the right direction in training. “I’m relatively confident that, as long as my knee is really good, I can attack fully.”

Like Hemetsberger, Odermatt was also looking forward to the break from the Streif on Thursday. “The rest day fits in very well, I was also in favor of us not driving for four days in a row again,” said the Swiss. The route will still change due to the forecast rainfall and upcoming cold weather. A total of twelve athletes from Austria took part in the training; the ÖSV will first nominate its team.