Fill makes history in St. Moritz
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The long-awaited day has finally arrived. Italy won the men’s downhill World Cup for the first time in history thanks to Peter Fill, who in the finals in St. Moritz won with tenth place the points needed to climb to the top step of the podium in the specialty ranking. The 33-year-old Carabiniere from Castelrotto crowns in the best possible way a fantastic season that saw him excel on the mythical Kitzbuehel, place second in Lake Louise, and win a series of good placings (fourth in Val Gardena and Joengsoen, fifth in Chamonix, eighth in Beaver Creek, and ninth in Wengen), thanks to which he finished with 462 points compared to 436 for the injured Aksel Lund Svindal, who had ended the season prematurely in Kitzbuehel due to a known knee injury. Fill came down with bib number 22, the last of the entrants, and knew the ranking situation up to that point, but he was good at administering the difficult situation in a run that began half an hour later than scheduled due to the night’s snowfall that forced officials to clean up the slope and with visibility that was far from optimal.
Nothing to do instead for Dominik Paris. The fall in Tuesday’s test resulting in a muscle injury to the gluteus and flexor of the left thigh, as well as a blow to the left tibial plateau due to the impact against a pole have left their mark on the physique of the champion from Val d’Ultimo, who bravely took the start, but was unable to force himself due to pain. Consoling him, however, is the third position in the specialty ranking at 432 points, shared on equal points with Kjetil Jansrud but still ahead of the Norwegian thanks to his two wins in the season against one.
The race was won by host Beat Feuz (in his sixth triumph of the season) with a time of 1’40″44, who preceded American Steven Nyman at the finish line by 8 hundredths, third was Canadian Erik Guay at 54 hundredths. Also at the start was Christof Innerhofer, who ended up 15th. On today’s day, the overall ranking also officially goes into the archives, with Hirscher now uncatchable at 1625 points against Henrik Kristoffersen’s 1272 and Alexis Pinturault’s 1080. Thursday, March 17, is the turn of the super-giant with start at 11:30 a.m.
Men’s DH finishing order St. Moritz (Svi):
1 FEUZ Beat SUI 1:40.44
2 NYMAN Steven USA 1:40.52 +0.08
3 GUAY Erik CAN 1:40.98 +0.54
4 JANSRUD Kjetil NOR 1:41.29 +0.85
5 CLAREY Johan FRA 1:41.32 +0.88
6 GANONG Travis USA 1:41.40 +0.96
7 GIRAUD MOINE Valentin FRA 1:41.48 +1.04
8 JANKA Carlo SUI 1:41.58 +1.14
9 KRIECHMAYR Vincent AUT 1:41.73 +1.29
10 FILL Peter ITA 1:41.80 +1.36
11 KLINE Bostjan SLO 1:41.86 +1.42
12 BAUMANN Romed AUT 1:41.87 +1.43
13 REICHELT Hannes AUT 1:41.99 +1.55
14 OSBORNE-PARADIS Manuel CAN 1:42.10 +1.66
15 INNERHOFER Christof ITA 1:42.15 +1.71
16 THEAUX Adrien FRA 1:42.22 +1.78
17 SANDER Andreas GER 1:42.24 +1.80
18 STRIEDINGER Otmar AUT 1:42.32 +1.88
19 PARIS Dominik ITA 1:42.78 +2.34
20 KROELL Klaus AUT 1:42.87 +2.43
21 WEIBRECHT Andrew USA 1:42.99 +2.55
22 KILDE Aleksander Aamodt NOR 1:43.41 +2.97
