First Super-G victory: Mattia Casse triumphs for the first time in the World Cup
Mattia Casse had to wait until he was 34 years old before he was able to celebrate his first World Cup victory. Today's super-G in Val Gardena/Gröden was the day: the Italian left all his competitors behind him in the first of the two speed competitions on the Saslong and climbed to the top of the podium for the first time in his 201st race.
Casse had the best grip on the very challenging slope after all that fresh snow and finished in 1:28.23 minutes, just a hair-line ahead of the American Jared Goldberg (+0.01 seconds). With his first victory, the “Azzurro” took his second podium finish in Val Gardena/Gröden after third place in the 2022 downhill. Casse has already shown in the training runs that he is a contender in the downhill classic on Saturday: he came first in the first and second in the second training run.
Jared Goldberg, who was narrowly beaten, also made his debut at the foot of the Sassolungo/Langkofel – as the runner-up, the Gardena/Gröden specialist took his first podium finish in the World Cup. The top three was completed by the exceptional Swiss skier Marco Odermatt. The winner of the super-G in Beaver Creek will have to wait a little longer for his first Saslong triumph.
Strong “Azzurri”, weak Austrians
Italy's speed aces put in a strong team performance in front of their home crowd. In addition to today's winner Casse, Dominik Paris from the Ulten region also made it into the top ten with a tenth place finish. Pietro Zazzi came in just behind him in eleventh place, with Nicolò Molteni (16th) and Giovanni Franzoni (30th) two more “Azzurri” to make it into the points. The super-G did not go as well as hoped for the trio of South Tyroleans Christof Innerhofer (Gais), Florian Schieder (Kastelruth) and Max Perathoner (Wolkenstein): Innerhofer finished in 35th place, Schieder in 54th place and Gröden debutant Perathoner did not finish.
The super-G was also a flop for the Austrian team. After Vincent Kriechmayr and Daniel Hemetsberger had achieved a double victory last year, this time no Austrian made it into the top ten. The best ÖSV skier was three-time Saslong winner Vincent Kriechmayr in twelfth place.
The downhill classic, the highlight of the 57th Saslong Classic, takes place on Saturday. The race starts at 11:45 am.
The complete result list of the super-G is available here.
