Innerhofer battles gate in wild downhill
Christof Innerhofer has been among the favorites for the classic men’s World Cup downhill race on the Streif course many times in his career, but he is yet to win it.
After yesterday’s training, Innerhofer was again regarded by many of his rivals as a potential winner after he was second fastest behind Italian teammate Mattia Casse in final training.
“What Innerhofer just did, we have to analyze it,” said Hannes Reichelt, the last Austrian winner of the race in 2014. “I wanted to ski more on the limit also but I didn’t manage to do that.”
Innerhofer, whose best result here was fifth two years ago, said others won’t learn much from studying TV footage of his run.
“I didn’t do anything special. Just a normal training run,” he said.
Innerhofer and Casse led the final practice session ahead of Saturday’s race by more than a second.
A late starter wearing bib No. 47, Casse timed 1 minute, 56.85 seconds on the 3.3 kilometer course to lead Innerhofer by 0.34. Vincent Kriechmayr came 1.03 behind in third but the Austrian missed a gate and would have been disqualified in a race.
Casse had a career best downhill result by placing 15th in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, last season, but Innerhofer is a seasoned winner on the World Cup with six victories, including four downhills.
Whether others see him as a favorite for one of the season’s marquee events, doesn’t matter to Innerhofer.
“I am too old for that,” said the 31-year-old skier, who won the super-G here three years ago. “I have been racing for nine years and I have been a favorite so many times. I was in the top three of training at least 20 times and people thought I was going to win the race. That’s fine with me.”
Usually mentioned in the circle of potential Streif winners, Innerhofer still has to live up to that billing. Despite consistent good training results, his fifth place two years ago has been his best showing in the race.
“I am feeling well now,” Innerhofer said. “I’ve learned that I just need to have fun out there. When I wake up on Saturday, I can’t wait for the race to start.”
Adrien Theaux of France, who was fastest in Tuesday’s first training, was 1.07 back in fourth, followed by Steven Nyman of the United States with a 1.16 second deficit.
“You get bumped around a lot but the snow is really positive this year,” Nyman said. “In some sections it’s icier but for the most part it’s like grippy ice, which is what we really like. I messed up the lower part Tuesday so that was my big focus and I skied that much better today.”
Overall World Cup leader Aksel Lund Svindal finished 1.29 behind Casse, while his Norwegian teammate and last year’s winner, Kjetil Jansrud, came 1.41 off the lead.
Florian Scheiber of Austria crashed and was airlifted to hospital. The Austrian ski federation said Scheiber needed surgery on torn ligaments and a damaged meniscus in his right knee. The incident came two days after Scheiber’s teammate Max Franz was ruled out for the season after also crashing and damaging his left ankle, knee and wrist.
The 76th edition of the Hahnenkamm races opens with a super-G on Friday. The results will also count as the first leg of a combined event, with one slalom run to follow five hours later. Eric Willemsen, Kitzbuehel, AP
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