Under a heavy snow, Marco Odermatt finished the first heat of the giant of the Beijing 2022 Olympics at the top of the table. Really racing at the limits of regularity, with many athletes complaining about visibility really reduced to a minimum. The Swiss still confirmed the prediction on the eve, but has not already mortgaged the gold medal, as he made some mistakes in the upper part, closing with the final time of 1’02 ”93.
A very tight race with very close gaps. In fact in second position there is the Austrian Stefan Brennsteiner, very good with bib number twelve to enter just 4 cents from Odermatt. The Frenchman Mathieu Faivre is also very close, who was delayed by 8 cents from the Swiss. The Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen (+0.12) and the French Thibaut Faivrot, fifth with the nineteen (+0.19), are also fighting for the victory.
Luca De Aliprandini finished the first heat in sixth position 49 cents from Odermatt. Too bad for an error in the initial part and above all for the crossing at the end, which made him lose at least two tenths. However, the podium is not far away and the native of Cles will attack at most in the second heat to hunt for a medal.
The fight for the podium seems to be restricted to the top six. The Austrian Manuel Feller is seventh with 74 cents ahead of the Slovenian Zan Kranjec (+0.78) and the American River Radamus (+0.86). The Swiss Gino Caviezel (+0.97) completes the Top-10, which preceded a disappointing Alexis Pinturault. First heat to be truly forgotten for the Frenchman, more than a second (+1.06) from Odermatt.
Both Tommaso Sala and Alex Vinatzer came outwhen the track conditions were really starting to be at the limit.
Photo: Lapresse
