(Selva Di Val Gardena) Austria scored a double in Val Gardena’s super-G, while three Canadians cracked the top 10.
Ex-world champion Vincent Kriechmayr scored his 17th victory on the World Cup circuit when he beat his compatriot Daniel Hemetsberger by just two hundredths in one minute, 28.39 seconds (1:28.39).
Marco Odermatt, who dominated the discipline last winter, finished third, three hundredths behind the winner.
Frenchman Cyprien Sarrazin finished just off the podium, while Marco Schwarz took fifth, giving Austria three of the top five places.
Two Canadians followed him: James Crawford and Cameron Alexander finished respectively 15 and 28 hundredths behind Kriechmayer. Albertan Jeffrey Read (1:28.79) finished tied for 10th place.
Fifth in Thursday’s downhill, Crawford is the reigning super-G world champion.
The course, set by a French coach, was relatively straight, allowing skiers to accelerate to over 70 mph, speeds approximating a descent on the Saslong piste. The conditions were practically perfect.
Kriechmayr was crowned downhill and super-G world champion in 2021, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, but he had not won a super-G since the finals of the 2021-2022 season, in Courchevel-Méribel.
Another descent is planned for Saturday. The circuit will then move to Alta Badia for giant slaloms, Sunday and Monday.