Josef Ferstl claims his maiden win in Val Gardena SG

The fastest time of the weather affected super-g in Val Gardena goes to Germany's Josef Ferstl. He earns his maiden World Cup win ahead of the Austrian duo Max Franz and Matthias Mayer.

Another snowy day on the World Cup Tour this season, but as the day went by, the snowfall became lighter, unfortunately leaving space for fog to come in. After a long interruption following bib n°38, the unfavorable forecast forced the jury to definitely interrupt the super-g race. As more than 30 racers were in the finish at that point, the race is valid and the podium of the day confirmed.

Josef Ferstl, son of double Kitzbuehel downhill winner Sepp Ferstl, was able to celebrate his first World Cup win today. Even though he realizes he was lucky with the weather today, the German knows he has the speed and is very happy that he could put his good training performances into practice on race day. So far, his best performance was a 5th place in the super-g in Santa Caterina in 2016.

Only +0.02 behind him, the Austrian Val Gardena downhill winner 2016 grabbed the second place of this year’s super-g. After his podium in the super-g in Lake Louise, Franz proves that he is in an excellent shape and can go into tomorrow’s downhill with a lot of confidence.

Olympic downhill champion Matthias Mayer is walking away with a third place. Coming down with bib n°4, and with a mistake at the entrance of the Ciaslat, the Austrian didn’t believe in a podium placement in the first place. But as the racers came by, he realized that he may have scored 9th career podium in super-g, the 16th in all disciplines. This became reality when the race was definitely interrupted at 14h30.

Tomorrow, the Saslong goes back to downhill mode, as the best athletes of the World will tackle the camel humps, the ciaslat and other famous sections to join the list of downhill winners in Val Gardena Gröden.