BORMIO — Marco Schwarz’s bid for the overall alpine ski World Cup title suffered a major setback when he failed to finish in the men’s World Cup downhill race in Bormio, leaving Frenchman Cyprien Sarrazin to pull off a surprise win.
Schwarz came into the event with an eight-point lead over Marco Odermatt in the overall standings but he appeared to twist his right knee as he ended up in the safety nets halfway down the course.
The 28-year-old Austrian, who won the slalom at Madonna di Campiglio last week, did not move for several minutes but after some help from paramedics, he was able to limp away without support.
He was later airlifted by helicopter to hospital.
“The best feeling ever,” said Sarrazin, who screamed “whoo-hoo” and stuck his tongue out after finishing.
“It means the world for me, after all the injuries, all the bad moments and good moments of my career. I feel great, so, so good.”
Canadian racer Cameron Alexander, the world championship bronze medalist, finished 1.23 behind in third.
“Finally, I did a great run from the first gate to the finish line,” Sarrazin said according to AP. “I felt so great and I pushed all along, I think it´s crazy. When I crossed the finish line, I said: `Yes, you did your job.´ It´s perfect.”
Sarrazin earned the second victory in his injury-marred career after winning a parallel giant slalom seven years ago in only his seventh World Cup start. The last French downhill winner was Adrien Theaux, who triumphed at another Italian venue, Santa Catarina, in December 2015.
Sarrazin’s win came less than two weeks after he finished a career-best fourth in the Val Gardena downhill.
The Frenchman then posted the fastest time in one of the training runs on the Stelvio this week, but didn’t regard himself a contender for the win.
“Just be yourself and see what happens,” he said when asked about his mindset before the race.
Odermatt earned his 11th career downhill podium, but came up a few hundredths short once more of a first victory in the discipline.
“It was the perfect run, it was how I wanted to race, extremely to the limit – but one guy was faster,” said Odermatt, adding that he lost the race in the last section where Sarrazin was 0.23 seconds faster.
Last season´s World Cup downhill champion Aleksander Aamodt Kilde quit his run after his ski hit a rock and got damaged.
“The inside of the left ski had quite some rips in it. Then it´s impossible to ski Bormio because it´s so icy. Every time I went on the edge, it slid away,” Kilde said.
Odermatt, the two-time title holder, subsequently took over top spot in the standings as he finished 0.09 seconds behind Sarrazin. The Canadian Cameron Alexander was third, 1.23 seconds behind the winner.
It marked just a second World Cup win for the 29-year-old Sarrazin whose only other victory came in his seventh race — the parallel giant slalom at Alta Badia in December 2016, AFP reported.
But he has been in good form latterly, finishing fourth in the second downhill at Val Gardena a fortnight ago, and pushed to the limit with some risky skiing on the demanding Stelvio piste.
He is the first French skier to win a World Cup downhill since Adrien Theaux won in Santa Caterina in December 2015.
“I finally put together a perfect race,” Sarrazin told Eurosport.
“When I crossed the line I said to myself ‘you did your job’.”
