Austrian Kriechmayr wins Kitzbuehel super-G

KITZBÜHEL: Austria's Vincent Kriechmayr won the men's World Cup super-G in Kitzbuehel on Monday as Frenchman Alexis Pinturault earned some valuable points in his bid for the overall title.

It was the 29-year-old Austrian's seventh World Cup victory, as the early starters benefited from clearer conditions.

Kriechmayr, who won super-G silver and downhill bronze at the 2019 Are world championships, hit speeds of 130km/h (81mph) as he timed 1min 12.58sec, finishing 0.12sec ahead of Switzerland's Marco Odermatt.

"My feeling was really good from start to finish," said Kriechmayr.

"I'm proud of my ski today. It's nice to be on the podium. It's one of my best victories, Kitzbuehel is a huge race.

"Big names have won the super-G here, so it's a good way to end the weekend, which was a tough weekend."

Odermatt, 23, called his second place "amazing, a little dream came true", having missed out in Friday's downhill which was cut short after the first 30 racers - he had bib number 31.

"I felt really good the whole week. I was disappointed not to race on Friday. I knew something was possible today, I was really fast," the Swiss said.

Another Austrian, double Olympic gold medallist Matthias Mayer, bagged his third top three of the Hahnenkamm race weekend, completing the podium to go with second and third-placed finishes in Friday and Sunday's downhills.

Pinturault consolidated his lead in the overall World Cup standings, his 12th-placed finish in the super-G seeing him move up to 800 points.

Odermatt's 80pts for finishing runner-up to Kriechmayr saw him leapfrog Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, out for the season with a knee injury, into second in the overall, on 607pts.

Defending champion Kjetil Jansrud had a run to forget, skiing out high up the 2.15km-long Streifalm course to bring the curtain down on a disappointing weekend of racing for the Norwegian.

And there was no three-peat for Swiss racer Beat Feuz, the winner of the two downhills also skiing out.

After two heavy crashes on Friday's downhill, organisers shaved the final jump in a bid to improve safety.

The super-G passed largely without incident, Austrian Daniel Danklmaier, however, hitting the netting after badly judging a landing.

France's Nils Allegre also slid out on an increasingly rutted track, but both skiers were able to walk away from their respective crash sites.

There was no such luck for Davide Cazzaniga, the bib number 45 starter looking to have sustained a nasty knee injury. Organisers airlifted the Italian off the piste.

The World Cup circuit now moves 140km to the west to the Austrian resort of Schladming for Tuesday's night slalom before two further slaloms in the French resort of Chamonix on the weekend.