In agonizing pain, Sander races into happiness
Veteran Dominik Paris races to his first victory in more than a year and a half at the ski classic in Val Gardena/Gröden. The German downhill skiers around former Streif champion Thomas Dreßen experience a debacle. Andreas Sander finishes 19th and is satisfied in a very special way afterwards.
Thomas Dreßen shook his head barely perceptibly, but it was clear to see that this race had not gone as he had imagined. No sign of the self-confidence he thought he had gained the day before. Instead, 26th place in the downhill on the Saslong in Val Gardena/Gröden, 1.94 seconds behind the winner, Dominik Paris from South Tyrol.
"Sobering is wrong now," said Dreßen, but: "Of course I was hoping for more. I probably just didn't ski well". 18th place in the super-G on Friday should have given him a boost, but the 30-year-old is actually treading water. "What I'm still missing is simply the necessary self-confidence in certain passages and also the coolness," he said.
"The pain was almost unbearable"
The best German was Andreas Sander, who was "happier than ever" with his gap to Paris (+1.81 seconds) and his place (19th) in view of the pain that his serious training crash on Tuesday had clearly left on his body and mind. "The pain was almost unbearable," he said. "That was really the best I could do."
Sander's teammates had even bigger problems, in fact the result of the German team was disappointing: Josef Ferstl in 25th place just ahead of Dreßen, Romed Baumann in 28th place, Simon Jocher in 37th place - a result that sobered up sports director Wolfgang Maier: "The emotional situation is not so exhilarating now, we are not at the top," he said, clearly dissatisfied.
"We are not determined enough"
Maier has already identified one reason for the team's poor performance so far. "We are not determined enough, not focused enough," he criticized and emphasized: "Either you go all in or you get passed like we have just done. They simply drive too passively. You don't have to take that personally, but that's just the way it is. It's called a racer, not a nice driver."
A prime example was winner Paris, who skied to his 22nd World Cup victory - after seven in Bormio, however, his first in the race on the Saslong. "It's hard to believe I could do something like that," he said with a grin and added, "it wasn't clean, but it was fast enough." Indeed: in the end, Paris was the clear winner ahead of Aleksander Aamodt Kilde from Norway (+.044 seconds). Third place went to Bryce Bennett from the USA (+0.60), who had won the first downhill on Thursday.
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After the challenging race, Sander expressed his satisfaction with his 19th place in alpine skiing, considering the pain from his training accident. Despite the team's overall disappointing results, Winter sports continue to captivate participants and spectators alike. With top athletes like Dominik Paris consistently setting new records, alpine skiing remains a thrilling and competitive discipline in the Winter sports scene.
Source: www.ntv.de
