He is still the king, Aksel Lund Svindal. The Norwegian wins once again on the Saslong amassing seven victories on the Val Gardena/Gröden track. Svindal wins today's super-G ahead of Christof Innerhofer. The Italian sees the first place fade away by only 5/100 of a second. Another Norwegian completes the podium, Kjetil Jansrud. Wonderful day and wonderful audience in the first race of the World Cup weekend in Val Gardena/Gröden.

The super-G of Val Gardena is decided by a matter of a few hundredths of a second: 5/100 to be exact, with Aksel Lund Svindal taking the lead from local favorite Christof Innerhofer, who dreamed of his first triumph on this track. The Italian finished second which is a great result given he always struggled on this course with the exception of a fifth place in last year's downhill.

Beating Svindal continues to be a challenge. The Norwegian wins his seventh victory on the Saslong including both super-G and downhill races and, with his success today, further strengthens his record on the Saslong track in Val Gardena/Gröden. Svindal practically ran a perfect race top to bottom, finishing with a time of 1:28.65. Innerhofer denied a Norwegian double win and placed second at +0.27 between Svindal and Jansrud. Frenchman Johan Clarey (+0.65) surprisingly jumps into 4th place. Starting with bib 50, he had a great race placing ahead of another Norwegian, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (+ 0.66), fifth. The winner of the 2017 super-G, German Josef Ferstl, has to settle for sixth place, with Matthias Mayer seventh and first of the Austrians.

Among the Azzurri, Peter Fill, not at his best after the fall of Beaver Creek, finished out of the 30, while Dominik Paris, who in the first intermediate time was faster than his teammate Innerhofer, made a mistake and does not conclude the race. The young Emanuele Buzzi is 22nd, with Mattia Casse 27th. Tomorrow, Saturday, at 11:45 am, all eyes will be on the classic Val Gardena downhill run.

The result list of the super-G is here.