Saalbach World Championships in Von Allmen, Dominik Paris fourth with mockery
The podium fades by a matter of seconds.
Dominik Paris comes within one step of the podium in the downhill at the World Championships in Saalbach: after missing the medal appointment by 16 hundredths of a second in the super-G, Domme sees the downhill bronze medal slip away by just 14: the world title goes to Swiss Franjo Von Allmen who with a time of 1'40''68 sits on the rainbow throne ahead of host Vincent Kriechmayr with the other Swiss Alexis Monney third at 0''31.
And then there'è Paris. The delay of 0''45 è the almost complete son of a third sector not interpreted at its best, in a race that otherwise saw the Italian constantly keeping up with the best on the Schneekristall. Very fast in the final stretch – even more than Von Allmen – the Val d'Ultimo champion had to settle for fourth place, at the end of a capital race.
"The dream è faded – are the words of Paris -. I am also sorry for the fans for not being able to get on the podium, too bad. I tried to let go of the skis but I found a bump and I no longer found the right line. I left everything in that stretch: after that there wasn't enough room to recover, I tried. Apart from that corner, I felt that the speed was there, but it wasn't enough: on a day like that you have to do everything right. On the positive side, there'è I came back close to my levels".
Paris kept behind Marco Odermatt (+0''66), with Norway's Adrian Sejersted sixth at 0''83 at the end of a throbbing challenge that crowned the very young Von Allmen – class of 2001 – in the heart of a season that saw him triumph in the super-G in Wengen and take three second places in the Gardena, Bormio and Wengen downhill runs. Less incisive was the performance of the other Azzurri: Florian Schieder pays 1''64 and è 16th, with Giovanni Franzoni 21st at 1''79 followed by Mattia Casse, vventiduesimo at 1''81.
