Here is Francesco Zucchini’s second Australian New Zealand Cup podium: only Drukarov comes from behind to beat him in race 2

Francesco Riccardo Zucchini continues to grow, claiming the second podium of his Australian New Zealand Cup career within the space of just a few weeks.

After finishing 3° in the giant slalom at Mount Hutt, the rising Lombard skier (Italian Youth champion in the discipline in 2024) came close to victory at Coronet Peak, in race 2, given that the New Zealand resort hosted a double men’s challenge on the giant slalom course today, after the women completed their programme yesterday.

In the first giant slalom of this Tuesday, Zucchini finished 7°, alongside Storm Andre Hagen, the 2007-born Norwegian who has been performing very well on his overseas campaign, dominating the race with a winning margin of 81 hundredths over Andrej Drukarov and 1”11 over American Townsend Mikell, who in turn finished ahead of two veterans, Christian Borgnaes and Adam Zampa, with fellow Norwegian Aleksander Torpe in 6th.

In the second race, the Lithuanian, who has just joined the Van Deer stable, took the victory (as well as the final discipline standings, with Zucchini 5th): Drukarov came from behind to overhaul Zucchini, who had led after the first run, turning a 19-hundredth deficit into an 11-hundredth advantage over the 23-year-old from Como, who finished 2nd ahead of Borgnaes (+ 0”41 behind the winner), with the Zampa brothers, Andreas and Adam respectively, in 4th and 5th place, ahead of Americans Kenney and Puckett (6th and 8th), Frenchmen Skabar and Dimier Chambet (7th and 9th respectively), and Spaniard Garay Fernandez completing the top ten.

Very young Giovanni Ceccarelli finished 35th in race 1 and 39th in the second run.

With this double-header, the 2026 ANC has come to an end, with Austria’s Christoph Meissl and Britain’s Molly Butler taking the overall titles.