Second place in Sarntal

Magdalena Egger takes her first EC podium of the season

ÖSV lady skied to second place in the first of two European Cup Super Gs in Sarntal, taking her first top three result of the season. Emily Schöpf shone with fifth place and now leads the overall EC rankings.

"I'm really happy about second place, I just took my chance," said a jubilant Magdalena Egger after finishing second in the first of two European Cup Super Gs in Sarntal, Switzerland, to claim her first EC podium of the season.

The athlete from Lech, who started the race with bib number five, clocked a bomb time of 1:13.11 minutes and was only overtaken by Italy's Asja Zenere in the end (-0.35). "It felt really good during the run," says Egger, "but I couldn't tell if it would be enough. When everything goes so easily in the Super G, it's actually dangerous."

But the ÖSV lady's run was really flawless, the only thing Egger wasn't completely satisfied with was the traverse. "We'll have to take another close look and then ski better in the second race," she says. With the first competition in Sarntal, the 23-year-old confirmed her increasingly strong form of late, which she herself is also happy about. "I'm very happy at the moment," she explains, "now I have to make sure that I can maintain this form for as long as possible."

Emily Schöpf took the lead in the overall European Cup standings with fifth place in the Sarntal Super G.(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Strong Emily Schöpf
It wasn't just Mäggy Egger who put in a strong performance on the first day in Sarntal, Emily Schöpf did too. The racer from Tschagguns finished in fifth place, achieving her best EC Super G result of the season. "I was really happy because the Super G season hasn't been that great so far," she said happily, "I was a little frustrated because I was only eleven hundredths off second place. But I was very happy with my performance in this race."

And she should be, because in addition to her best Super G result, Schöpf overtook Switzerland's Janine Schmidt in the overall European Cup rankings and is now in first place with nine decisions to go. "That's nice, but I don't really want to think much about that," says the 23-year-old, "I want to focus fully on my skiing now and do the best I can in the remaining races."