Alpine skiing: Huntermann and Alexander create a surprise tie in Kvitfjell

Swiss Nils Hintermann and little-known Canadian Cameron Alexander surprisingly entered the World Cup win on a downhill in Kvitfgel (Norway) on Friday, ahead of both favourites.

With his solid size (1.89 m, about 94 kg), Nils Huntermann was forced to take a small place on the first step of the podium after the result of a crazy landing in Kvitville.

Composed of a cool descent with a bib 17, Swiss-Canadian Cameron Alexander showed up with a bib 39 to go down the track at the same time (1:44.42). A double event given the skater’s pedigree (he didn’t score any points this winter at the World Cup) and his young age relative to Salil (24 years old).

Several of the world’s very poorly ranked beginners did well on Friday (Simon Jocher, pipe 44, seventh, Italy’s Guglielmo Bosca, pipe 48, 9), showing that track and visibility remained perfect during the long-running race. Two hours .

Alexander was able to take advantage of these favorable conditions on his preferred slope: he won the European Cup on the slope (second world level) here in February, and it was already at Kvitfjell that he signed the best result of his 2020 world career to date (10th).

The Vancouver skier was suspended on the climbs a few months later with a serious knee injury at Val d’Isere in December 2020, and did not return to competition until the end of 2021.

– Thrill of the small world –

For Nils Hintermann, the victory feels like the end of a rebirth at the age of 26, having already secured the podium this winter in the downhill (third in Val Gardena and Bormio in December). The ‘Pig’, the sweet nickname for the champion from Canton Affoltern, had won the Wengen combined title in 2017 before going through several tough seasons between injuries and a loss of confidence.

It is the first tied World Cup win on the slopes since Austrians Matthias Mayer and Vincent Krechmeier VR (Sweden) in 2018. In 2014, Austrian Georg Strietberger and Norway’s Ketel Jansrud already shared the win in Kvitfel.

Jansrud, a five-time Olympic medalist and 23-time world circuit winner, started his penultimate race on Friday (45) and will bid farewell on Saturday during the second round.

Behind the winners of the day, the favorites accumulated in a few hundredths of a second.

Austrian Super G Olympic champion Matthias Mayer competes in the World Cup downhill race in Kvitfjell, March 4, 2022. Austrian Matthias Mayer completes the podium at 12/100. Downhill winner at the Beijing Olympics, Swiss Beat Feuz finished fourth in 19/100, ahead of Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde at 20/100.

The suspense of the little globes remains intact as Keldy maintains the lead in the rankings by three points ahead of defending quadruple champion Fuse, 28 ahead of Mayer, and two races left (Saturday then March 16th in Courchevel).

Often times, Johann Cleary, who became a vice-champion Olympic at the age of 41 last month, became the best French player and finished sixth with a time of 57/100. Matthew Bailet finished 19th, Maxines Mozzaton 21st, Sam Alphand 23rd for his first World Cup score, and 27th for Blaise Gisindaner.

Swiss Marco Odermatt finished just 15th at 91/100 but remained comfortably at the top of the general classification, 346 points ahead of Keldy.