Sarrazin in Kitzbühel downhill run before Schieder and Odermatt

The new star in the speed sky prevailed on Friday after an outstanding finish by just five hundredths of a second ahead of South Tyrolean Florian Schieder. World Cup leader Marco Odermatt (+0.34 seconds) from Switzerland took third place. The best Austrian was Vincent Kriechmayr, who was in seventh place, six tenths behind.

Otmar Striedinger and Stefan Babinsky were outside the top 19 when 40 runners started. For the other Austrians, things went even less as planned. Daniel Hemetsberger, with start number 2, got his skis onto the safety tarpaulin on the steep slope exit and lost a lot of time. He then quickly disappeared from the target area without giving an interview. Daniel Danklmaier slipped on the inner ski on the edge of the Hausberg and was eliminated. “It’s just bitter. I’m four tenths behind and just need to finish it cleanly,” said the Styrian, who was arguing with himself.

• Also read: Start of the first Kitzbühel descent postponed to 12.30 p.m
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“The others pulled him through mercilessly.”

Kriechmayr, on the other hand, had a good, but not perfect, run. In the upper part he was among the fastest, but the Upper Austrian lost in the flat section and in the final passages of the Streif. “The start was very good, but in the area and on the Oberhausberg I unfortunately didn’t hit the track optimally a few times and was a little too straight. At the bottom I maybe looked at the line a little too much. The others got it carried out mercilessly,” he explained.

Striedinger, who was in poor health, said his expectations weren’t too great “if you spend two days in bed.” The Carinthian said he “noticed while driving that I didn’t have the strength I would like.” On Saturday (11.30 a.m./live ORF 1) he still wants to be at the start again and attack. Babinsky said he “didn’t catch important corners on the track quite ideally. Then I’m just a few km/h short when it’s flat. Then you just lose tenths by tenths.”

• On the subject: Uproar surrounding three-time Olympic champion Mayer in Kitzbühel

Third win of the season for Sarrazin

Odermatt once again showed a drive to the limit, but with a few moments of uncertainty. He kept the American Ryan Cochran-Siegle a hundredth of a second behind him, but the overall World Cup winner of the last two years had no chance against Schieder and Sarrazin. For Sarrazin, who had already won the Bormio downhill and the Wengen Super-G It was our third win this season. At the beginning of his career, the 29-year-old was still considered a giant slalom specialist. As of December 2023, he had won his only World Cup victory in 2016 in a parallel giant slalom in Alta Badia.

“My good friend Clement Noel already has one of these next to his couch,” said Sarrazin, looking at the winner’s trophy, the famous chamois. Being Kitzbühel winner “still sounds unreal”. The last French Kitzbühel winner in the downhill to this day was Luc Alphand, who won over a shortened distance in 1997. Noel won the slalom in 2019.

Due to light snowfall and poor visibility on parts of the route, the start was postponed by an hour to 12.30 p.m. The conditions were not optimal during the race either, but there were no irregular conditions.