The Swiss had another amazing day at the 2017 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships after Luca Aerni earned the alpine combined gold medal. His teammate Mauro Caviezel took home the bronze medal, bringing the medal tally for the host nation to six in as many races.
Aerni, who was named as the last Swiss racer for the alpine combined team just last night, finished in 30th place in the downhill run, making him the first starter for the slalom run. He clocked the fastest time of the day in the slalom, although did not know if his run would hold off the top names like Marcel Hirscher and Alexis Pinturault and had to sit through the entire field waiting in the leader box.
But one-by-one his competition came down and could not best the young Swiss ace. Hirscher missed the mark by the smallest of all possible margins, 0.01 seconds, taking home the silver medal. Swiss teammate Mauro Caviezel, meanwhile, also came very close, ending just 0.06 seconds off the golden pace for the bronze.
“I was really nervous the last 45 minutes waiting for everyone to finish," said Aerni. "I could only watch and hope as the others came down. I knew my slalom run was good, but with the combined you never know what will happen. It was definitely a long wait until I realized I had the gold medal."
Romed Baumann (AUT) held the lead after the downhill run, 0.12 ahead of Frenchman Adrien Theaux. Most of the traditional slalom skiers sat more than a second off the pace after the downhill run. The best speed racers were Dominik Paris and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who tied for fourth place 0.40 seconds behind.
The three medalists were also the three racers with the best slalom times. Hirscher was 28th after the downhill and Caviezel was 14th.
It was the first medal for both of the Swiss skiers, who also both have never earned a podium place in the World Cup. It was Hirscher’s fifth career World Championship medal, as he now has three silvers and two golds.
Tomorrow is Nations Team Event, which begins at 12:00 CET. It is sure to be of great interest to the public with the event newly added to the Olympic programme for the 2018 PyeongChang Games.
Source: fis-ski.com
