Josef Ferstl followed the races of his competitors on the big screen with excitement, at the end there was the certainty of his best result of the season.
At the Downhill World Cup in Val Gardena, Italy, the 33-year-old raced to sixth place and thus broke the World Cup norm. He skied well and had fun, said Ferstl. "Sixth place, great placement. The World Cup qualification is over," he said.
On the demanding Saslong with its dreaded bumps and jumps of up to 80 meters, the man from Traunstein was only 0.28 seconds behind the Austrian winner Vincent Kriechmayr. Second was the Swiss overall World Cup leader Marco Odermatt ahead of Matthias Mayer from Austria. Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who had won the first two shot drives of the season, had to settle for fifth.
"Break until January" for Dreßen
Thomas Dreßen missed out on the points in the race that was also included in the program after a driving error, grabbed his right thigh in the finish area and hobbled through the snow after the race. In the evening after an examination in the hospital in Brixen, there was the depressing diagnosis: a muscle injury in the right thigh. "Break until January," said men's national coach Christian Schwaiger.
This means that Dreßen is not able to participate in the downhill on the Saslong on Saturday or in the World Cup on December 28th and 29th in Bormio (Italy). The thigh is not doing so well, reported the Mittenwalder. "I hope it's just a strain. The physio will take a look at that," he said in the finish area.
Andreas Sander finished 14th in the catch-up race that was canceled on December 2nd in Beaver Creek (USA) as the second-best German. "That was a good race for me. I usually criticize a lot when I drive, but today there is nothing to criticize ", judged the 33-year-old after his best downhill placing this season. "I notice that things are going uphill, that the speed is there and now it's time to keep at it," said Sander. He had finished the two previous downhill races in Lake Louise (Canada) and Beaver Creek as 31st and 19th.
Luis Vogt (32nd), Romed Baumann (33rd) and Dominik Schwaiger, who fell early, went away empty-handed. On Friday there is a Super-G in Val Gardena, followed by the second descent on Saturday.
