Hirscher's amazing race secured an Austrian triple

Hirschers amazing race secured an Austrian triple posted: 18/02/2019

Marcel Hirscher

Marcel Hirscher was not about to have anyone take the slalom gold from him. Alexis Pinturault, the only athlete with a chance to push the Austrian giant off the top of the podium, made a mistake in the second run. Austria swept the mens slalom podium as the re 2019 finale.

The gold in giant slalom gave a confidence boost to Henrik Kristoffersen. Marcel Hirscher had a cold and could not match the Norwegians performance on Friday. On Sunday, Kristoffersen was the second man in the starting gate after Clement No l opened with a solid run. Shortly thereafter Hirscher, however, wearing bib number three crossed the finish line, 1.70 seconds ahead of Kristoffersen

Alexis Pinturault, gold medalist in the men's alpine combined who also won bronze in the giant slalom, had bib number four and tied with the Austrian for most of the first run. A mistake in the finish steep had the Frenchman lose 0.56 seconds to Hirscher. Apart from Pinturault, no racer was less than a second behind Hirscher, proving that the Austrian's first run was extraordinary. Fellow Austrians Marco Schwarz and Michael Matt ended up in third and fourth position, respectively, 1.22 and 1.35 seconds behind Hirscher.

In the second run, the tall Swiss Ramon Zenh usern and Brit Dave Ryding had their turns sitting in the leaders chair. Ryding advanced from 20thposition in the first run to ninth. Zenh usern took a massive lead and advanced from 12thto 5th. He was eventually only beat by the top four athletes in Run 1: Schwarz, Matt, Pinturault and Hirscher and would probably have made the podium if he hadn't made a mistake in his first run, costing him valuable time.

Marco Schwarz and Michael Matt had great second runs and it looked as if the podium would be all white and red. Alexis Pinturault was the only one with a chance of preventing an Austrian sweep. He started the second run well, until he made a big mistake, almost slipping off the course, and finally ending up in fourth position.

- The goal was to achieve an individual medal and while it was nice that the team won a medal, this means more to me, said Michael Matt who was also part of the Austrian team that won silver in the alpine team event.

Michael Matt, Marcel Hirscher and Marco Schwarz - the Austrian tripple

- The goal was to achieve an individual medal and while it was nice that the team won a medal, this means more to me, said Michael Matt who was also part of the Austrian team that won silver in the alpine team event.

Marcel Hirscher did not make any mistakes. He pushed hard at the start of the 2nd run, gliding through the second part a little easier and finished 0.65 seconds ahead of Matt. Marco Schwarz thus won bronze, Michael Matt silver and slalom king Marcel Hirscher gold, for the third time, making him equal to Ingemar Stenmark. The two are the only male alpine skiers who have won three World Championships titles in slalom.

Hirscher was greeted by the crowd as the champion he is but at the same time, he was not his usual radiant self when receiving the medal.

- I'm healthier than I was four days ago. But I'm more tired than usual, that's why you see less emotion in my interviews and photos for example. I'm beat, he said, and added:

- But, please believe me, I'm really super happy for these two medals and it means a lot to me because I'm getting older and everyone expects me to be better and better so it's good to stay this course.

LINK:	https://www.live-production.tv/news/sports/hirschers-amazing-race-secu...
	See more stories from liveproduction

Most recent headlines