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Zabystran upsets Odermatt to claim first World Cup win in Val Gardena super-G / Photo: Stefano RELLANDINI - AFP
NYSE - LSE
Zabystran upsets Odermatt to claim first World Cup win in Val Gardena super-G
Jan Zabystran stopped Marco Odermatt from notching up a 51st World Cup win on Friday with a stunning victory in the super-G at Val Gardena.
Czech Zabystran claimed his first-ever World Cup victory at the age of 27 just as Odermatt looked set to secure his second success in as many days following Thursday's downhill win on the same Saslong piste.
Zabystran clocked a time of one minute and 24.86 seconds to beat his previous best World Cup finish of eighth, at Kvitfjell in March, and give his country a debut win in the elite alpine skiing competition.
That put Zabystran 0.22sec ahead of skiing star Odermatt, the Swiss still taking a 13-point lead in the super-G standings ahead of Vincent Kriechmayr who finished the day 0.72sec off the pace.
"I always thought one day if I could be in the top three it would be amazing... I just thought 'let's go' and I thought I could be in the top 30, then I crossed the line I saw for the first time the green light," said Zabystran.
"I'm pleased it's a first win for a Czech... it's a great push for the next races."
Odermatt is also marching towards a fifth straight overall World Cup title and looks in great form with the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics coming up in February.
He leads Henrik Kristoffersen -- who didn't compete on Friday -- by 383 points at the top of the overall standings, with another downhill scheduled for the same piste on Saturday.
The men's tour then moves across northern Italy to Alta Badia which will host a giant slalom on Sunday and a slalom the following day.
"I'm very happy with my performance, I did everything I could... huge congrats to Jan but I'm very pleased with my display," said Odermatt.
"(Tomorrow) will be a similar race, you have to wait to the last guy... The lower part of the piste will be very fast and very bumpy so you have to stay concentrated."
After reaching his half century of World Cup wins on Thursday, Odermatt is joint fourth in the all-time men's list behind Ingemar Stenmark (86), Marcel Hirscher (67) and Hermann Maier (54).
Women's ski star Mikaela Shiffrin holds the overall record with 105 World Cup wins.
M.Marie--PS
