Alpine Skiingmen's world cup
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The first giant of Santa Caterina Valfurva has rewarded the Croatian, more and more a certainty after being unblocked last season. Anger for Kranjec, Odermatt's happy return.
Saturday 5 December 2020 4 minutes reading time
He is the man of the storms, just think of what the athletes faced last February 22 in Yuzawa-Naeba, in that Japanese giant between wind and very difficult snow that rewarded the "chameleon" Filip Zubcic.
In reality, however, the day of the turning point in the career of the one who is dragging the Croatian movement into the post-Kostelic era, despite not being a specialist in the narrow stakes (even if he is not doing badly ...), is the '' 11 January 2020: 2nd place in the Adelboden temple, with a great comeback in the 2nd heat, where Luca De Aliprandini derailed in the lead after the first, beaten only by Zan Kranjec.
The Slovenian himself had to bow today under the snowstorm in Santa Caterina Valfurva, which rewarded Zubcic's extraordinary ability to adapt to such complicated conditions; in reality, however, Filip is now an absolute certainty of this discipline, with four podiums in the last six giants and, practically, only the opening of Soelden with a hole in it. That 12th place means that he does not find himself red bib for the first time in his career (last year he finished third in the ranking of specialties), an opportunity that he could have tomorrow since he is only 18 points behind Marco Odermatt and on par with Braathen, just in front of his "friend" Kranjec.
"Today it was really difficult due to the weather conditions, but I can say that I trained a lot precisely for these racing situations - the Croatian admitted to the FIS microphones in the post-race session - Last season was the best of my career and to start with a win in the second race it's really nice. How to Naeba? Yes, in some ways, but what matters is to have changed little in the preparation compared to last year and to continue with this continuity ”.
And while Zan Kranjec mulled over in the post-race, for having lost over 8 tenths in the decisive heat from the unleashed Zubcic, Marco Odermatt smiled for another podium, who returned to the great after the positivity at Covid (with mild symptoms, but with a ten-day quarantine ) and now already third in the overall standings of the World Cup, 55 points behind Alexis Pinturault and just behind Zubcic himself.
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Giant slalom Male Santa Caterina (ITA)
ZUBCIC Filip
KRANJEC Zan
ODERMATT Marco
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