Hirscher Dominates Alta Badia GS
For the 5th time in a row, Marcel Hirscher celebrated a giant slalom win on the Gran Risa in Alta Badia. Henrik Kristoffersen finished second, and Zan Kranjec from Slovenia claimed his first ever World Cup podium.
The Austrian 6-times Overall winner Marcel Hirscher is undoubtedly the strongest giant slalom athlete at the moment! Not only did he win this race with -1.70 on his closest rival, but he also was on the podium in the 12 last giant slalom races (world cup and world championships) and won 7 of them. But with this 24th GS win in career, Marcel Hirscher is also equaling Ted Ligety’s mark of the second most wins in that discipline, trailing Stenmark with 46 wins. The statistics are also pretty impressive considering the races in Alta Badia, as Hirscher just won his fifth successive win in the South Tyrolean resort.
In second place, Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen proves that he can be constant at a very high level in giant slalom as well this season. After a second place in Beaver Creek, and a 5th place in Val d’Isère, the slalom whiz is now pointing at the 2nd place, 54 points ahead of Alexis Pinturault. The slalom whiz also hopes to grab some points tomorrow in the Parallel Giant Slaloms, even though he never did better than 9th place in an individual parallel event so far.
The sensation of the day came from Zan Kranjec. The 25 years young Slovenian claimed his first World Cup podium today in Alta Badia. Already last year, Kranjec was knocking on the podiums door as he finished 4th on the Gran Risa. Also in Sölden he was able to ski in 4th position. But today everything came together and Zan Kranjec score what could be the first podium of a long serie in this discipline. It’s a big step for him, but also for his nation Slovenia. The last Slovenian to earn a podium placement in giant slalom was Uros Pavlovic back in 2001 in Kranjska Gora.
Ted Ligety’s comeback from back surgery took another step toward the top step of the podium at the FIS Ski World Cup giant slalom in Alta Badia, Italy, Sunday.
“I want to start winning World Cups here, and I feel I’m just a couple little things away from figuring that out,” Ligety (Park City, Utah) said after finishing seventh in the first run and then charging the second run to score his best World Cup result in more than a year, finishing fifth.
“I had some good turns in there,” Ligety said of his first run. “I was holding onto it a little bit on the bottom and had a couple bobbles down here on the flat that cost a lot of speed, but overall it was OK skiing.”
Austria’s Marcel Hirscher won his second giant slalom of the season and moved into a tie for the overall World Cup lead with Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal, who won Saturday’s downhill but did not compete in Sunday’s GS. Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen was second, and Zan Kranjec of Slovenia landed on his first World Cup podium in third.
Tommy Ford (Bend. Ore.) finished 23rd in the first run but did not finish the second run.
“It was difficult,” Ford said of his first run. “I had a hard time letting go and carrying speed. The snow was really grippy, and I had a hard time being light on my edges.”
Up next, the men compete in parallel giant slalom under the lights in Alta Badia Monday night. Ligety is looking forward to the upcoming races and as he continues building toward the Olympics Winter Games.
“Body-wise I’m feeling good,” he said. “But after two years of being injured, it’s hard to get the race sharpness back right away. That’s definitely a skill you get back by doing it a little more. I just feel like I need to get that last little bit of intensity in.”
Tomorrow, a parallel giant slalom will be held in Alta Badia. The 16 best giant slalom skiers, the 4 best overall skiers and 12 athletes qualified through today’s first run, will compete in an exciting dual format from 18h30 owards
