Feuz safely negotiates training in bid to cement Kitzbuehel status
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Feuz safely negotiates training in bid to cement Kitzbuehel status
Kitzbühel (AFP) – Olympic champion Beat Feuz safely negotiated the second and final downhill training in Kitzbuehel on Thursday in his bid for a fourth consecutive triumph on the Streif course.
The Swiss star, who also won downhill bronze and super-G silver at the 2018 Olympics and will retire at the end of the season, clocked 1min 59.46sec down the most demanding course on the men s World Cup circuit.
Feuz, who won two downhills in the Austrian resort in 2021 as well as last year, didn t hit full throttle by some margin, finishing 2.57sec off the leading time set by France s Cyprien Sarrazin.
Italy s Mattia Casse timed the top registered speed, hitting an eye-watering 141.21 km/h (88mph) in the final section.
While Kitzbuehel has been witness to many crashes over the years, there were none in training on Thursday, with downhills scheduled for Friday and Saturday, followed by a slalom on Sunday.
Feuz s teammate Marco Odermatt, the runaway leader in the overall World Cup standings, looked very comfortable in finishing 11th, 0.74sec off the pace.
His arch-rival Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway, who won a downhill in Kitzbuehel last season, was 17th (+0.98sec).
Two other previous downhill winners were on show: Italian veteran Dominik Paris and Germany s Thomas Dressen.
Three-time winner (2013, 2017, 2019) Paris, 33, was one spot ahead of Kilde while 2018 champion Dressen was 1.82sec behind Sarrazin s leading time down the 3.3km-long Streif course on the Hahnenkamm mountain overlooking Kitzbuehel.
