(Adelboden) Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt earned another victory in a men’s Alpine Skiing World Cup giant slalom event on Saturday as he won the race in Adelboden, his native country, presented by a abnormally mild temperature for the season.
Reigning Olympic champion in the discipline, Odermatt not only protected the lead he had forged after the first run, he increased it by posting the best time after his second outing on the track.
He completed the event with an overall time of two minutes 30.68 seconds, or 73 hundredths of a second ahead of the Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen. The Norwegian bowed in respect as he greeted Odermatt in the finish area and gave him a thumbs up sign.
Loïc Meillard, also of Switzerland, placed third with a combined time of 2:32.34.
Erik Read (2:34.63) was the top Canadian with a 15e square. His compatriot Trevor Philp (2:35.02) placed 17ehelped by the second best performance among the 30 skiers who had qualified for the second run.
Philp negotiated this second run in 1:14.25, 26 hundredths of a second behind Odermatt’s time.
For his part, Odermatt signed a fourth victory in five giant slaloms of the World Cup since October.
He also stood on the podium for a 14e back-to-back in giant slalom over the past two seasons. That streak includes her gold medal at the Beijing Olympics last February.
Odermatt now has 17 career World Cup victories, including 11 in giant slalom, and he was able to extend his comfortable lead in the overall Alpine Skiing World Cup standings to 400 points over Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who had to settle for ninth place on Saturday.
During the first round, the mercury hovered around the freezing point. When the second round started, around 1:30 p.m. local time, it had risen to seven degrees Celsius.