Suter wins small crystal ball in downhill race
Corinne suter’s tears of glory and joy were already rolling when the downhill race in crans-montana was still in full swing.
After just a few starters, the swiss skier had the certainty of winning the discipline world cup in downhill for the first time in her career. Before the world cup final in mid march in the noble italian ski resort of cortina d’ampezzo, the 25-year-old, who finished second in the downhill, as she did the day before, can no longer take the small crystal globe out of reach.
Suter leads the downhill world cup with 477 points and only one race to go, ahead of olympic champion ester ledecka from the czech republic (322) and italian federica brignone (320). Suter is the first swiss woman to win the downhill world cup since chantal bournissen in 1991.
Suter’s compatriot lara gut-behrami also enjoyed a dream weekend. Within 24 hours, the experienced swiss skier achieved her second coup at the home world cup in wallis, and did so with a lead of just 0.02 seconds. Third place went to austrian nina ortlieb, three hundredths of a second behind the leader. Suter’s closest rivals in the discipline world cup, brignone and ledecka, finished fourth and fifth respectively on saturday.
In the absence of the injured german skier viktoria rebensburg, kira weidle and co. Once again behind expectations. "The material fits. At the moment, it’s mainly down to self-confidence," said weidle, who after finishing 22nd on friday was only 23rd this time. Was, although their ride was slightly better than the day before.
"It is simply bitter to have achieved two such poor results here. That’s not my goal. And also for the next years, when i think about the goals i have in the departure, i just can’t allow myself to do that. If you don’t like the slope, you have a problem. But I have to be more mentally prepared," said weidle self-critically. In the dolomites they now want to do "damage control". "I like cortina very much. Maybe there are still some things to save."
Patrizia dorsch, who will be the only DSV starter in the combined on sunday, finished in 27th place. Michaele wenig was 29. Veronique hronek 34.
