Dec 7 (Reuters) – Marco Odermatt secured his 49th World Cup victory and fourth of the season on Sunday at Beaver Creek, Colorado, where the Swiss enjoyed a brilliant opening run to the men’s giant slalom and then needed much of that cushion to close out the win.
Odermatt, three days removed from his downhill win at Beaver Creek, led by 0.86 seconds after the opening run on the formidable Birds of Prey course and in the second run needed to pick up speed through a late series of bumpy turns en route to a combined time of two minutes 20.59 seconds.
That left the 2022 Olympic giant slalom gold medallist 0.23 seconds clear of Italy’s Alex Vinatzer, who moved up after finishing 10th after the first run. Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway finished third.
“It was a tough second run,” said Odermatt, whose previous best result in a giant slalom at Beaver Creek was 27th in 2018. “It got bumpy and I really needed my advantage from the first run,”
Odermatt, racing after 29 skiers had gone before him on the second run, saw his advantage shrink early on and needed to dig deep to close out the win. The Swiss, who already had World Cup wins this season in giant slalom, downhill and super-G, pushed the limit with a solid display of tactics to deny Vinatzer a maiden World Cup win.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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