The final round of the opening giant slalom in Sölden will take place without Marco Odermatt, Manuel Feller and Stefan Brennsteiner. The trio was eliminated in the first round on Sunday in fantastic weather on the Rettenbach Glacier. Marcel Hirscher returned from retirement in 28th place, 2.29 seconds behind the leading Norwegian Alexander Steen Olsen, and can start the second round with the very good number three.
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Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, now driving for Brazil, easily qualified in 19th place (+1.68). The best of only two qualified Austrians is Raphael Haaser in seventh place despite minor errors (+0.71). Patrick Feurstein is in 14th place (+1.25). Steen Olsen leads by a small margin over the Croatian Filip Zubcic (+0.02) and the Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen (+0.08).
Hirscher: “Super horny”
Hirscher started with number 34 2,051 days after his retirement. “It’s pretty strange after five years of retirement,” said the 35-year-old, now a former star who scores for the Netherlands, to ORF. “It was pretty good until the middle of the steep slope, then I thought: Now the devil is taking me, now I’m going to get off the line later and later. Stay safe.” It was “super cool,” says Hirscher. “A little over two seconds behind, that was also the case in training. When I think that I can do that all season, it’s really cool.”
“The form isn’t quite there yet. The speed was actually right for that, I got a little too greedy,” reported Feller. The Rettenbach glacier is still not a good place for the Tyrolean, with twelfth place in the books as the best result for the start of the season. The Brennsteiner from Salzburg was eliminated with an interim best time. He lost his outside ski on the steep slope and had no chance after a hit. “Of course it looks very classic. It’s bitter, I’ve been skiing very fast in the last few weeks. It’s really annoying me.”
Odermatt suffered the same fate as number one. The Swiss dominator of the previous season missed the hat-trick of victory in Sölden. In the first two sectors he was by far the fastest. “It was extremely cool up to there, everything fit perfectly. I wanted to take the risk and really hit it big,” said Odermatt on ORF. “I was a little over-motivated.” His compatriot Loic Meillard sprained his back while driving in and didn’t start.
