Bad day also for Elena Curtoni, who closes out of the top 10. Surprise gold for Flury ahead of Ortlieb and Suter
Sofia Goggia’s hopes for a medal in the downhill of the Courchevel/Meribel World Championships have vanished. Down with bib number 6 after a less than perfect start to the race, Sofia was about to catch up with the Swiss Flury. Then the mistake: Sofia took a big risk, after a glean she went through a door, but she managed at least to remain standing: she crossed the finish line 47/100 late but was then disqualified. Goodbye medal dreams, goodbye sweet dreams. In the six World Cup downhills held this year, Sofia – who leads the specialty classification – achieved 4 successes and a second place. She then crashed on the second descent of Cortina on 21 January. In the time trials on the world track she was the fastest two times out of three. “More than disappointment, there is displeasure – commented Goggia to Rai microphones -. I gave everything I had. So far it hadn’t gone bad. How do you go downhill? She took my skis and I found myself in front of the door. It was all so fast that I didn’t even understand, then from the slow motion I saw that I had got on the fork. In all three rounds I’ve never dominated, but this is a somewhat particular race: you can make the difference in two or three points, then the rest is within the reach of many. I arrived at this World Cup with an unfavorable condition, I tried to give everything I had. It’s a pity I didn’t get a medal that was within my reach. There is the regret to digest, then we focus on the next appointments in view of Crans Montana”.
The race
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In a race that has revolutionized the predictions, the gold is won by the Swiss Jasmine Flury, 29 years old, only one success (in super-G) in the World Cup and in her first race at the World Championships today. In downhill her best finish was the second place of the season in Garmisch, today in 1’28″03 she left behind the Austrian Nina Ortlieb of 4/100 (also for her it is the first world medal after 2 junior gold medals) and teammate Corinne Suter, the reigning World and Olympic champion, at 12/100.
The other blue ones
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The Azzurri took to the track with mourning on their arms to remember Elena Fanchini, the former teammate who died on Thursday at the age of 37 after battling cancer. Elena Curtoni arrived at the finish line 1″05 behind in 13th place, Laura Pirovano ended up in 14th place at 1″06, Nicol Delago eighteenth at 1″41.
The male descent
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The Federation has formalized the quartet for tomorrow’s men’s downhill and there is no Christof Innerhofer, always among the best in the timed trials. In addition to Dominik Paris, Florian Schieder and Mattia Casse there will be Matteo Marsaglia.
In today’s race Matteo Marsaglia and Florian Schieder set the third fastest time ex aequo. The best was the Austrian Marco Schwarz in 1’47”75 ahead of the Canadian Brodie Seger. For Italy, Dominik Paris and Mattai Casse – the other two of the blue quartet competing tomorrow – set the 11th time in 1’49″12 and the 22nd time in 1’49″86 respectively.
February 11, 2023 (change February 11, 2023 | 5:44 pm)
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