Olympia 2018: Departures in Jeongseon: Dreßen beaten off in first practice session

The German ski racer and Kitzbühel winner Thomas Dreßen has not yet coped with the course in the first training run for the Olympic downhill on Sunday.

Dreßen even missed a goal on the less challenging “Jeongseon Downhill” and finished 31st. The 24-year-old had a 2.28-second gap to the Canadian Manuel Osborne-Paradis, who set his first lead time in 1:40.45.

Josef Ferstl (Hammer) was in 21st place (+1.84 seconds) and Andreas Sander (Ennepetal) in 24th place (+1.94), the best German in the still not very meaningful first test run, which was also used by the riders to test the suitable material. Kjetil Jansrud (Norway/+0.31), who had won the World Cup two years ago and Mauro Caviezel (Switzerland/+0.45) were behind the fastest Osborne Paradis.

Dreßen drove with start number one,”that’s never nice in the first practice session, you’re always a bit of a test pilot, even if the track isn’t exactly spectacular now,”he said. The race, he added,”will definitely be a close story, it is said to be no mistakes” On the track in Jeongseon it is “hard to be fast, but easy to lose a lot of time”.

Slalom runner Linus Straßer (Munich) also ventured onto the track – he wants to start in the combination and must therefore complete at least one training session. His gap to the best time was 6.63 seconds – equivalent to 67th place. On Friday and Saturday there will be two more training runs.