Swiss sweep podium in men's team combined at alpine ski worlds
Von Allmen, Meillard win gold; Canadians Read, Seger finish 17th
Franjo von Allmen became a double world champion and Loic Meillard claimed his fourth career world championship medal when the Swiss pair won gold in the new team combined event on Wednesday in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria.
They led a Swiss sweep of the podium at the worlds, 0.27 seconds ahead of silver medallists Alexis Monney and Tanguy Nef.
Stefan Rogentin and Marc Rochat were 0.43 behind and took bronze.
"Totally crazy, three Swiss teams on the podium is amazing," said Meillard, who has a silver and two bronzes from previous worlds. "I think everyone on the team is going crazy."
WATCH | Swiss men sweep podium in the team combined slalom:
It's the third gold medal for the Swiss team at these worlds after Marco Odermatt won the super-G and von Allmen the downhill. Switzerland won silver in the mixed-team parallel event last week.
"Incredibly cool," said von Allmen, adding his recent results were a surprise for himself.
"I am still satisfied with any top-10 result, that is still good for me in my second World Cup season," he said. "What is happening here, I can't put it into words."
WATCH | Von Allmen and Meillard talk Swiss dominance in team event:
Canada's Brodie Seger and Erik Read placed 17th while nine of the 36 teams didn't finish the race.
The team combined entails one racer competing in a downhill run and another in a slalom, with their two times added up to determine the final results.
The team combined will make its debut at next year's Milan-Cortina Olympics.
WATCH | Seger, Read 17th of 27 finishing teams in Saalbach-Hinterglemm:
Earlier Wednesday, Monney posted the fastest time in the downhill portion, giving his teammate Nef a slim advantage of 0.02 seconds over Meillard to start the slalom.
However, Meillard completed his slalom run nearly three-tenths of a second faster than Nef.
After waiting for Nef to come down, Monney leaped over barriers and ran into the finish area to embrace his teammate as the six-man Swiss party got started.
It is the first Swiss sweep of a men's podium at the worlds since Peter Mueller, Pirmin Zurbriggen and Karl Alpiger won gold, silver and bronze in downhill at their home 1987 worlds in Crans Montana.
Italy 1, with downhiller Dominik Paris and slalom racer Alex Vinatzer, was 0.46 seconds behind in third after the downhill portion, but Vinatzer straddled a gate and became one of the nine slalom skiers that failed to finish their run.
After early rain, the downhill portion was delayed for about 15 minutes twice as low clouds moved over the upper part of the course and reduced visibility for the racers.
WATCH | Seger discusses learned lessons from alpine worlds:
Swiss squad lighter on top
"I pretty like bad light, maybe weird, but I like it," Monney said.
Von Allmen struggled early in his run when he came off the race line and skied into the soft snow outside the blue lines. He just managed to make the next gate and then made up almost all of the time he lost there.
"That can happen, I tried to make the best out of it," said von Allmen, adding he had "a bit more space in his helmet" as he and the entire Swiss downhill team shaved hair off their heads after its successes in Sunday's downhill.
Odermatt skipped the team combined, opting to prepare for the giant slalom on Friday, but the Swiss star attended the race and joined in the celebrations.
The leader of the slalom standings, Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway, also sat out the event.
The next race is the women's giant slalom on Thursday, which defending champion Mikaela Shiffrin will sit out as she feels not ready yet to compete in GS following her crash in November.
Watch live coverage of the alpine world championships on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem. A live streaming schedule is available here.
With files from CBC Sports
