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.
By the time Cameron Menzies finally left the arena on Monday, the blood gushing from the gash on his right hand had trickled down his wrist, part of his forearm and — somehow — up to his face. Smeared in crimson and regret, and already mouthing sheepish apologies to the crowd, he disappeared down the steps, pursued by a stern-looking Matt Porter, the chief executive of Professional Darts Corp (PDC). The physical scars from Menzies’ encounter with the Alexandra Palace drinks table after his 3-2 defeat against Charlie Manby at the Darts World Championship would be gone within a few weeks.
Manchester United on Monday blew the lead three times to miss out on moving up to fifth in the Premier League as AFC Bournemouth would not be beaten in a thrilling 4-4 draw at Old Trafford. United have lost just once in their past 10 games, but Ruben Amorim would be frustrated as more points at home were frittered away despite arguably the best attacking display of his reign in charge. Amad Diallo and Casemiro gave the hosts a halftime lead either side of Antoine Semenyo’s equalizer. Two Bournemouth goals from Evanilson and Marcus Tavernier in seven minutes at the start of the
LOW-GOAL SHOOT-OUT: Of the nine penalties in the shoot-out, only three went in, with Flamengo’s Samuel Lino, and Vitinha and Nuno Mendes of PSG netting Matvei Safonov on Wednesday made four straight penalty saves in a penalty shoot-out to help Paris Saint-Germain beat Flamengo in the Intercontinental Cup final and win a sixth trophy of the year. The Russian goalkeeper was thrown in the air by his teammates after his exploits in the shoot-out, which was won 2-1 by PSG after a 1-1 draw after extra-time. It completed a trophy-laden 12 months for the French team, who had already won the Trophee des Champions, Ligue 1, the Coupe de France, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup — also on penalties against Tottenham Hotspur in
Italian Luca de Aliprandini described Saturday’s World Cup giant slalom at Val d’Isere as the hardest race of his life, coming two days after his Swiss partner Michelle Gisin suffered a heavy fall in training which required neck surgery. De Aliprandini finished 26th in the men’s event won by Loic Meillard, but the result paled into insignificance with two-time Olympic ski champion Gisin in hospital with injuries to her wrist, knee and cervical spine (neck). “It was Michelle’s wish that I race here. I couldn’t say no to her, but it was the toughest race of my entire life,” an emotional De
RSS