Olympia 2018: Superior Hirscher lead in giant slalom before Pinturault

Marcel Hirscher is fully on target in the fight for his second gold medal at the Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang at the half-way point of the giant slalom of alpine skiers. After the first round in Yongpyong, the combined Olympic champion is 63 hundredths of a second ahead of Alexis Pinturault (FRA) and three others ahead of Leif Kristian Nestvold-Haugen (NOR). The decision increases from 5.45 am (CET).

Especially a strong lower section in particular gave Hirscher the reasonably comfortable advantage:”There is almost nothing inside at the top. If it is a new slope, there is still a lot of caution,”says Hirscher, who was satisfied with the choice of material:” The most important thing in the first round was that the tuning fits well.

Pinturault was not completely satisfied with his run:”I made two mistakes at the beginning, but then things went well,”said the Frenchman, but not at all, as he had hoped for the first run for the American Ted Ligety, who was only 2.44 seconds behind him on the 20th position for the time being. position.

While Hirscher is hardly surprisingly at the front as the biggest ÖOC carrier of hope, his Salzburg countryman Stefan Brennsteiner is in his 14th position. to the final round. In the first goals, the Olympic debutant got off to a good start, but the steep slope was no longer optimal from his point of view:”It was okay up to there. I didn’t take the risk in the escarpment.”

Manuel Feller, who started right in front of Hirscher, was about to mark a top time. After a mistake, the Fieberbrunner crashed into the last goal, crossing the finish line, but was finally disqualified. The 25-year-old had overestimated the “combination of speed and radius”, but his usual high risk remained unrewarded:”In such a race, you are only there if you risk everything. I made it to the last goal.”

Christian Hirschbühl, who had started the race instead of the injured Philipp Schörghofer, retired in the upper part in contrast to Feller:”I was too much on the inner ski and I was gone,”he analyzed his failure. The slope was praised by all runners, including the Vorarlberger:”The slope is very demanding, very Olympic worthy.