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Stefan Rogentin secures the fifth Swiss starting place for the World Championship downhill with a strong second training run.
KEYSTONE
Stefan Rogentin secures the last Swiss starting place for Sunday's World Championship Downhill. The man from Graubünden beat Marco Kohler and Lars Rösti in the team-internal elimination.
The second downhill training session also had only limited significance. While some racers took the opportunity to gain new insights into their choice of line and equipment, others pushed themselves to the limit. Among them were the three Swiss skiers who were fighting for the fifth and final starting place for Swiss-Ski.
Rogentin took to the course with start number 1, showed a committed run and was clearly the fastest of the unseeded Swiss trio. In 5th place, the man from Graubünden lost eight tenths to Ryan Cochran-Siegle, who set the fastest time in training as on Wednesday. Although Rösti improved noticeably compared to the first training session, he still lost 63 hundredths on his team-mate and thus missed out on the first World Championship race of his career. The same applies to Marco Kohler, who went beyond the limit and was eliminated.
The Swiss team for the supreme discipline therefore consists of Alexis Monney, Justin Murisier, Marco Odermatt, Franjo von Allmen and Rogentin. The Swiss are allowed to compete with five athletes on Sunday because they have the reigning world champion in Odermatt, who is not a burden on the normal contingent.
The fastest Swiss in the second training session was Von Allmen. The man from the Bernese Oberland showed an outstanding run, especially in the middle section. He slowed down before the finish jump and finished in 2nd place, 43 hundredths behind Cochran-Siegle ex aequo with Stefan Eichberger. The Austrian beat Otmar Striedinger and Raphael Haaser in the internal team elimination. Odermatt, Monney and Murisier only partially pushed themselves to the limit and finished 8th, 13th and 21st respectively.
Vincent Kriechmayr skipped training after finishing second in the first practice run. The Austrian gave his right knee a break in view of Friday's Super-G. Race starts are not in danger, he said. In his crash two and a half weeks ago in the downhill in Wengen, he had pulled an inner ligament.
The third and final downhill training session is scheduled for Saturday.
