Italy’s Dominik Paris renewed his love affair with his home slope winning the men’s World Cup downhill in Bormio yesterday for a fourth time.
The 30-year-old set a blistering 1min 49.56sec down the icy ‘Stelvio’ piste in the Italian Alps to finish 0.39sec ahead of Switzerland’s Beat Feuz with Austria’s Matthias Mayer third at 0.42sec.
“It’s icy, pumpy and that’s what I think is the real downhill,” said the skier from northern Italy after his fifth win on his home piste where he achieved his first World Cup victory back in 2012.
“It’s not my slope, it’s my home course. I know what I have to do on this hill, but I can’t explain why I’m so fast.”
Paris claimed his first World Cup win this season and 17th of his career, of which 13 are in the downhill, for a total of 35 podium finishes since his debut in 2008.
“I risked enough today. At Carcentina I lost a bit of speed but I saved myself,” he continued. “I didn’t want to happen like in Lake Louise where in two races I suddenly found myself second.”
The Carcentina diagonal is one of the most spectacular and difficult parts of the technically challenging Stelvio, which covers 3.25km with a drop of 1,010m.
Yesterday’s race replaced the cancelled event at Val Gardena last week and was reduced to 2.95km with the full-length race scheduled for today’s downhill.
“Dominik in a level of his own,” said Mayer.
“It was a close race today between me and Beat (for second).”
It was also Paris’s third consecutive downhill win in Bormio. He also won the Super-G last season.
Paris moves up to second in the overall World Cup standings, 30 points behind Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen, and second in the downhill 36 points adrift of Feuz.
‘Beyond your limit’
World Cup downhill champion Feuz, winner in Beaver Creek, Colorado, was competing with a broken finger picked up in the Super-G in Val Gardena.
The Swiss skier still claimed his third podium in as many races. Germany’s Thomas Dressen, winner in Lake Louise, finished ninth.
But Paris has shown himself to be the speed king since the beginning of last season, winning eight races — five downhill and three super-G.
Austrian great Marcel Hirscher’s retirement has thrown the field wide open in the battle for the overall World Cup title.
His 13 downhill wins see him close in on the record of 14 wins achieved by both Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal and Austria’s Michael Walchhofer.
The world super-G champion can match their record today.
“Racing at home is always great, you have your public, your tifosi (fans) and everyone is here to watch you,” he said.
“There’s a lot of pressure so you push a little bit more beyond your limit.
“I don’t know if I’m a record man, but I’m feeling very great on the Stelvio and on this course,” he added of the piste which will host men’s alpine skiing at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
from Gulf Times https://ift.tt/2PZPjif
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