Men's combined team event

World Championships: Men’s Team Combined from 10 am LIVE

The Swiss are jubilant, while the Austrians are hanging their heads.

(Bild: Pail Sepp)

Loic Meillard and Franjo von Allmen raced to World Championship gold in the men's combined team event. The race was disappointing for the red-white-red teams, three of the four teams were eliminated in the slalom, Fabio Gstrein and Daniel Hemetsberger finished in fifth place.

The men's combined team event at the World Ski Championships in Saalbach-Hinterglemm turned into a Swiss triumph. Franjo von Allmen/Loic Meillard won ahead of Alexis Monney/Tanguy Nef and Stefan Rogentin/Marc Rochat. The ÖSV teams came away empty-handed on Wednesday. Daniel Hemetsberger/Fabio Gstrein were fifth, Manuel Feller/Vincent Kriechmayr, Dominik Raschner/Stefan Eichberger and Marco Schwarz/Stefan Babinsky fell by the wayside in the slalom.

The final results:

In the downhill in the morning, Monney had beaten world champion Von Allmen into second place by two hundredths of a second, Hemetsberger had handed Gstrein fourth place and 0.95 seconds behind. Kriechmayr/Feller in 13th were 1.31 seconds back, Eichberger/Raschner in 17th 1.81 seconds and Babinsky/Schwarz in 21st 2.46 seconds.

"A little daft"
"Hemmi tried everything, I tried everything. On the whole, I think we both skied well. It just wasn't meant to be because the external conditions didn't suit us," said Gstrein, who finished seventh in the slalom. He was also referring to the salt-treated slope and the time gaps - large towards the front, very narrow towards the back. "I think Switzerland 1 and 2 already had a pretty good lead with the downhill. And Marc Rochat was a bit ahead of me, which makes a big difference on a slope like this."

Daniel Hemetsberger and Fabio Gstrein (r.)

(Bild: GEPA)

Hemetsberger found that it all turned out "a bit daft". "Those who were ten numbers ahead of him were only about three tenths behind. If I'm three tenths slower, he has a much better number. Then we'd probably be a little further ahead because the track would have been better. But it went really well, it's good," said the Upper Austrian.

Swiss dominance among the men continued
In contrast, there was a jubilant mood a few meters further on in the Swiss camp. "Incredibly cool, the performance of the whole Swiss team. That's something for history," said the now double world champion von Allmen. "I'm still happy with a top-ten result in my second World Cup season. That's why what's going on here is beyond words for me." Meillard said: "This is simply brilliant. It shows that we can all ski well and are all fit." Von Allmen/Meillard finished 0.27 seconds ahead of Monney/Nef and 0.43 seconds ahead of Rogentin/Rochat. Hemetsberger/Gstrein were 37 hundredths of a second short of bronze.

It was the first Swiss triple success at a World Championships since the 1987 downhill in Crans-Montana, when Peter Müller came out on top ahead of Pirmin Zurbriggen and Karl Alpiger. In total, there have now been three triple victories for Swiss-Ski. In 1931, at the first World Ski Championships in Mürren, Walter Prager won the downhill ahead of Otto Furrer and Willi Steuri. The Swiss men have won all the individual gold medals in Saalbach so far. Marco Odermatt triumphed in the super-G, followed by von Allmen in the downhill.

Many slalom failures on the salt slope
The match for the medals began with Feller as starting number 17 in the slalom. However, the Tyrolean dropped out in the middle section after setting good split times. "I know from the last few weeks that I'm skiing really well in the slalom at the moment. The training worked extremely well and up until then it was also very, very good. But the slope eased up a bit and the run was more on the narrow side, then I got into trouble once or twice. But you don't want to let off the gas in that situation," he explained.

Marco Schwarz

(Bild: Pail Sepp)

"What a pity. If I had driven a bit better, Felli would have been in a better situation. The way he skied right up to his fädler, he was certainly one of the best athletes at work today," explained Kriechmayr.

Manuel Feller

(Bild: Pail Sepp)

Yule and Noel also out
Raschner was also caught out. "The Fädler happens quickly in the slalom, especially in these conditions," said the Tyrolean. It had softened up a bit, but the base of the piste was "super there". Schwarz explained that he had "struggled cleanly". "It's a very tight course, very twisty," said the Carinthian. He wanted to make up time in the last part, "then it was perhaps a bit early that I let the ski out". So the competition ended with a retirement for him too - just like for the South Tyrolean Alex Vinatzer, the French Olympic champion Clement Noel and the Swiss Daniel Yule.