Kranjska Gora (Slovenia), Mar. 7 (LaPresse) – Luca Pinheiro Braathen confirms on the Podkoren slope of Kranjska Gora that his recent Olympic title in the giant slalom is in good hands and sets the best time in the first run in 1’10"36 and the fourth in the second for a total of 2’11"95, with a 54 hundredths advantage over Loic Meillard. Stefan Brennsteiner is third at 80 hundredths. Marco Odermatt is fifth at 1"33 from the leader and loses precious points for the specialty cup standings, which still see him in the lead with 495 points, but the Brazilian moves up to 48 points behind and everything will be decided in the finals race. Meillard also remains in contention, 89 points behind his teammate. Decent second run for Alex Vinatzer, who for three quarters of the course manages to gain a lot on his rivals. Then a mistake in the final section makes the skier from Gardena lose a few too many tenths. Vinatzer still recovers 6 positions and finishes in 19th place with a delay of 2"58. Pippo Della Vite has a similar race: good in the upper part, a bit slow from halfway down and he finishes in 21st place, with 18 hundredths more than his teammate. "Today is not a favorable day despite my best result here in Kranjska – said Alex Vinatzer -. In the final part I was sliding a bit and couldn’t hold the skis well. It has still been a somewhat complicated period, I hope to be able to do better at the finals”. “I wasn’t able to trust 100% given the many exits – said Filippo Della Vite -, and I couldn’t push to the maximum. Actually, as usual, two tenths less would have been enough to recover many positions. Anyway, I reached the finish line and I accept the result”. Giovanni Borsotti straddles the penultimate gate, having to give up the race. Luca De Aliprandini had made many mistakes along the course of the first run and had finished outside the top thirty. Tobias Kastlunger had not qualified for the second, while Stefano Pizzato and Simon Talacci had gone out.
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