Kristoffersen wins GS; Odermatt secures discipline title
Last updated on: 12 March,2022 07:37 pm
The result gave Odermatt an insurmountable 207-point lead over Kristoffersen in the GS standings.
KRANJSKA GORA (AP) — Olympic champion Marco Odermatt finished runner-up to Henrik Kristoffersen in a men’s World Cup giant slalom Saturday to lock up the discipline season title with two races to spare.
Kristoffersen was in fifth after the opening run but had an attacking effort to land his sixth career win in GS, matching the best mark from Kjetil André Aamodt for most GS wins by a skier from Norway.
Odermatt improved from seventh position after the opening run to share second place with Kristoffersen’s teammate Lucas Braathen, 0.33 seconds off the lead.
Odermatt’s Swiss teammate Loic Meillard posted the fastest second-run time and climbed from 18th to fourth.
The result gave Odermatt an insurmountable 207-point lead over Kristoffersen in the GS standings.
“It’s a big relief and wonderful to have secured the globe two races before the end,” said Odermatt, who had not won a discipline title before.
Last season, Odermatt finished runner-up in the season standings in both GS and super-G. In the current campaign he has won four of the six giant slaloms so far.
His second place also helped Odermatt to close in on the overall title. He stretched his lead to 269 points over his closest challenger, Norwegian speed specialist Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who was skipping the race weekend in Slovenia.
Kilde was also in the race for the downhill title and opted to prepare for the downhill race at the World Cup Finals in France on Wednesday.
Defending overall champion Alexis Pinturault, who led the race after the opening run, dropped to 11th as his disappointing season continued. Pinturault is still chasing his first win of the season after earning three podium results so far.