Kroell stirs Austrian hopes in last training
Training counts for nothing, but don’t tell that to the thousands of fans and media in Austria. Klaus Kroell was the fastest down the Streif in the final training run ahead of Saturday’s downhill at Kitzbuehel.
Austria hasn’t won its own Hahnenkamm downhill trophy since 2006. Its only men’s downhill win this season has been a kiss-your-sister tie between Hannes Reichelt and Italian Dominik Paris in Bormio. It is difficult to understate the up swell created today (Jan 24) when Kroell produced the lead the final training run time over Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal.
Svindal is a popular guy, but he’s definitely not Austrian. Kroell skied well under a sunny sky on a still bumpy but improved track. He was just .26 ahead of Svindal, and .28 ahead of a second Norwegian Kjetil Jansrud, but these were fractions of a second in the right direction in a difficult season.
Italian Werner Heel was the early leader and finished fourth. A second Austrian, Georg Streitberger, was fifth.
The fastest man in the sport, Frenchman Johan Clarey (went 100 mph last weekend at Wengen) was sixth. Steven Nyman collected seventh, Erik Guay 10th and Travis Ganong 13th as the fastest of the North Americans.
The North American media won’t more than mention today’s result. The French, Italian and Norwegian press will report it, but little more. In Austria Kroell’s run will be the most talked about event of the day.
“My goal is to win this race as it is about time an Austrian wins here again,” said Kroell. “It has been a long time since that happened. … for sure we will be giving it our best shot.”
There was a spare American on course today. Daron Rahlves, 2003 winner, was a forerunner.
Gepa photo
Kitzbuehel (AUT)
Training
Men’s Downhill
Jan. 24, 2013
Rank | Bib | FIS Code | Name | Year | Nation | Total Time | FIS Points |
1 | 18 | 50753 | KROELL Klaus | 1980 | AUT | 1:57.74 | |
2 | 17 | 421328 | SVINDAL Aksel Lund | 1982 | NOR | 1:58.00 | |
3 | 12 | 421483 | JANSRUD Kjetil | 1985 | NOR | 1:58.02 | |
4 | 3 | 292514 | HEEL Werner | 1982 | ITA | 1:58.12 | |
5 | 24 | 50858 | STREITBERGER Georg | 1981 | AUT | 1:58.34 | |
6 | 15 | 191740 | CLAREY Johan | 1981 | FRA | 1:58.37 | |
7 | 2 | 533866 | NYMAN Steven | 1982 | USA | 1:58.40 | |
8 | 5 | 560447 | SPORN Andrej | 1981 | SLO | 1:58.50 | |
9 | 7 | 191964 | POISSON David | 1982 | FRA | 1:58.56 | |
10 | 16 | 102263 | GUAY Erik | 1981 | CAN | 1:58.67 | |
11 | 9 | 510727 | DEFAGO Didier | 1977 | SUI | 1:58.89 | |
12 | 8 | 192746 | THEAUX Adrien | 1984 | FRA | 1:59.11 | |
13 | 4 | 530874 | GANONG Travis | 1988 | USA | 1:59.20 | |
14 | 10 | 51327 | PUCHNER Joachim | 1987 | AUT | 1:59.21 | |
15 | 22 | 291459 | PARIS Dominik | 1989 | ITA | 1:59.28 | |
16 | 23 | 53817 | FRANZ Max | 1989 | AUT | 1:59.33 | |
17 | 47 | 400281 | VAN HEEK Marvin | 1991 | NED | 1:59.35 | |
18 | 42 | 102899 | OSBORNE-PARADIS Manuel | 1984 | CAN | 1:59.51 | |
19 | 40 | 201606 | KEPPLER Stephan | 1983 | GER | 1:59.52 | |
20 | 14 | 51215 | BAUMANN Romed | 1986 | AUT | 1:59.66 | |
21 | 26 | 533131 | SULLIVAN Marco | 1980 | USA | 2:00.00 | |
22 | 36 | 511142 | LUEOEND Vitus | 1984 | SUI | 2:00.22 | |
23 | 11 | 103271 | THOMSEN Benjamin | 1987 | CAN | 2:00.53 | |
24 | 37 | 180570< /td> | ROMAR Andreas | 1989 | FIN | 2:00.56 | |
25 | 38 | 511529 | GISIN Marc | 1988 | SUI | 2:00.62 | |
26 | 32 | 380260 | KOSTELIC Ivica | 1979 | CRO | 2:00.87 | |
27 | 13 | 510890 | ZURBRIGGEN Silvan | 1981 | SUI | 2:00.95 | |
28 | 25 | 511313 | JANKA Carlo | 1986 | SUI | 2:01.38 | |
29 | 46 | 193034 | BOUILLOT Alexandre | 1985 | FRA | 2:01.39 | |
30 | 55 | 660021 | DANILOCHKIN Yuri | 1991 | BLR | 2:01.60 | |
31 | 49 | 561216 | KLINE Bostjan | 1991 | SLO | 2:01.70 | |
32 | 44 | 293550 | MARSAGLIA Matteo | 1985 | ITA | 2:01.81 | |
33 | 50 | 510747 | GRUENENFELDER Tobias | 1977 | SUI | 2:01.84 | |
34 | 51 | 561217 | KOSI Klemen | 1991 | SLO | 2:02.15 | |
35 | 53 | 530939 | WEIBRECHT Andrew | 1986 | USA | 2:02.28 | |
36 | 54 | 510997 | BERTHOD Marc | 1983 | SUI | 2:07.60 | |
37 | 35 | 194190 | ROGER Brice | 1990 | FRA | 2:09.14 | |
38 | 31 | 50625 | RAICH Benjamin | 1978 | AUT | 9:01.62 | |
Did not start 1st run | |||||||
56 | 430429 | BYDLINSKI Maciej | 1988 | POL | |||
52 | 511352 | VILETTA Sandro | 1986 | SUI | |||
48 | 192504 | MERMILLOD BLONDIN Thomas | 1984 | FRA | |||
45 | 531452 | BIESEMEYER Thomas | 1989 | USA | |||
43 | 294277 | KLOTZ Siegmar | 1987 | ITA | |||
41 | 200379 | SANDER Andreas | 1989 | GER | |||
39 | 53902 | MAYER Matthias | 1990 | AUT | |||
34 | 194364 | PINTURAULT Alexis | 1991 | FRA | |||
33 | 534562 | LIGETY Ted | 1984 | USA | |||
30 | 102271 | HUDEC Jan | 1981 | CAN | |||
28 | 191591 | BERTRAND Yannick | 1980 | FRA | |||
27 | 511139 | KUENG Patrick | 1984 | SUI | |||
21 | 561067 | PERKO Rok | 1985 | SLO | |||
20 | 50742 | REICHELT Hannes | 1980 | AUT | |||
6 | 51332 | SCHEIBER Florian | 1987 | AUT | |||
1 | 292455 | FILL Peter | 1982 | ITA | |||
Did not finish 1st run | |||||||
29 | 192932 | FAYED Guillermo | 1985 | FRA | |||
19 | 293006 | INNERHOFER Christof | 1984 | ITA |