Kvitifjell, Austria (AP) – Vincent Kriechmayr remains in contention for the men's World Cup super-G title after winning the penultimate event of the season on Sunday.
Kriechmayr beat second-place Jeffrey Reid of Canada by 0.17 seconds, closing the gap on event leader Marco Odermatt to 81 points and leading Austria in the World Cup final in Saalbach on March 22. Only his home race stood out.
Odermatt almost took the title with a first or second place on Sunday, but the Swiss star shared third place with Italian racer Dominique Paris, 0.19 seconds behind Kriechmayr.
“I'm very happy with my performance today. A lot can happen in Hvitfjell,” Odermatt said. “Sure, it was two-hundredths faster and everything was set. But it was two-tenths slower and it was completely open again. So, I'm happy, and Vince made it.”
Odermatt opened up a huge lead over Cyprien Sarrazin in the overall standings with 918 points. The Frenchman missed this weekend's race with a calf injury.
Odermatt has finished on the podium in 14 of the past 15 super-G races and won the discipline title last season. In order to become world number one again, he needs to finish 13th or higher in the final race.
Kriechmayr didn't want a chance to overtake Odermatt next month.
“It's just a theoretical possibility. He's not going to allow this to be taken away from guys in this class,” said Kriechmayr, the 2020-21 World Cup super-G champion.
Kriechmayr missed a turn wide and lost time midway through, but gained a decisive advantage at the bottom of the course.
“I raced almost to the limit there,” said the Austrian. “I didn't think I would take the lead after that mistake.”
This is Kriechmayr's ninth career World Cup super-G victory, and he has also won the downhill nine times. Three years ago, he won gold in both events at the World Championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo.
Kriechmeyer was runner-up. Same downhill on Saturday, won by Niels Hintermann. The Swiss racer finished 48th on Sunday, 1.66 seconds behind the leader, leaving him out of the World Cup points.
Reed earned his first career podium at a World Cup, one day after fellow Canadian Cameron Alexander took third in the downhill. On Sunday, Alexander finished fifth.
“There was a lot of anticipation and demand for this. It feels really good,” Reed said. “My teammate Cam really inspired me yesterday. I knew the skiing he showed me yesterday was what I needed to do today.”
Italian skier Pietro Zazzi, wearing number 50, started late but finished sixth, sharing the place with teammate Guglielmo Bosca.
The men's World Cup will next head to the United States, where two series of technical races will be held next weekend in Palisades Tahoe, California, and March 1-3 in Aspen, Colorado.
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