By Martyn Herman
BORMIO, Italy, Feb 7 (Reuters) – Switzerland’s Franjo von Allmen produced a stunning run on Stelvio to win the Olympic Alpine skiing men’s downhill on Saturday as illustrious team mate and race favourite Marco Odermatt missed the podium.
The 24-year-old von Allmen barely put a ski off line as he blazed down the sunlit track to win with a time of 1:51.61, smashing Odermatt’s mark by 0.70 seconds.
Young Italian Giovanni Franzoni led a powerful home charge in front of 7,000 fans in the Italian resort, but there was to be no dream start to the Milano Cortina Games for the hosts as he had to settle for silver, 0.20 behind.
Veteran Italian Dominik Paris, dubbed the king of the Stelvio after his six previous downhill wins on the iconic piste, took the bronze, 0.50 seconds back.
The 28-year-old Odermatt has dominated men’s Alpine skiing for half a decade and was favourite to deliver Swiss gold in the blue-riband event and add to his giant slalom gold at the 2022 Games. But it was not to be his day as he finished fourth.
“I actually felt very good on the snow, on the slope, I had a good run,” the World Cup leader said. “I don’t know what I would change right now if I could do again.
“It was just not fast enough.”
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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