Jan Zabystran on Friday stunned prerace favorite Marco Odermatt in the Val Gardena super-G to become the first male skier representing the Czech Republic to win a FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup race.
Starting with bib 29, the 27-year-old took full advantage of improved light conditions and a slight tail wind on the Saslong course in Italy to clock a time of one minute 24.86 seconds, beating overall World Cup leader Odermatt of Switzerland by 0.22.
Czech-born Jan Hudec won two World Cup races, in 2008 and 2012, but was then competing for Canada.
Photo: Reuters
“I was hoping that some day I could make it to a World Cup podium, but before that I was just hoping to take part in a World Cup race. Now I’m in the leader’s chair, it’s just incredible,” said Zabystran, whose previous best result was eighth place in a super-G in Kvitfjell, Norway, last season.
“It was a good run, I had good feelings, but yesterday I also had a good feeling, and I ended up 32nd [in the downhill]. When I finished, I thought I would be top 10 maybe, but then I heard the fans and turned around, and saw the green. It’s crazy,” he said.
Italian Giovanni Franzoni took third place, 0.37 off the pace.
Odermatt, now on 685 points, extended his overall World Cup lead over Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen to 383 points and snatched the lead in the super-G standings from Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr with 225 points.
Kriechmayr is on 209 points after taking ninth place.
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