Gold medallist Austria's Vincent Kriecmayr celebrates with silver medallist Canada's Jeffrey Read and bronze medallists Switzerland's Marco Odermatt and Italy's Dominik Pais, in Kvitfjell, Norway, on Feb. 18.NTB/Reuters
Canada’s Jeffrey Read placed second in the men’s super-G on Sunday for the first FIS Alpine World Cup podium finish of his career.
Read, from Canmore, Alta., finished in 1 minute 9.4 seconds to put him in the leader’s seat until Austria’s Vincent Kriechmayr beat his time.
“The stars aligned, it’s a track that I love and have some speed on, and the skiing was just right today,” Read said. “I ended up with a good clean run, good enough for second, not quite enough speed to catch Kriechmayr in first, but it was a really tight race, and I’m really stoked to end up on the podium.”
Kriechmayr beat Read by 0.17 seconds and closed the gap in the discipline standings on leader Marco Odermatt to 81 points, with only the Austrian’s home race at the World Cup finals in Saalbach on March 22 outstanding.
Odermatt would have locked up the title Sunday with a first or second place, but the Swiss star shared third position with Italian racer Dominik Paris, trailing Kriechmayr by 0.19 seconds.
Read’s strong showing continued a strong weekend for Canadian men’s ski racing, after Cameron Alexander of North Vancouver, B.C., finished third in the downhill on Saturday.
“This is a track that is definitely one of our best, if not for sure our best,” Read said postrace. “There is something about the snow, I think, being a bit similar to home, and terrain that we’re really comfortable on, and we have a lot of confidence, so it kind of clicks every time we’re here, and it’s nice to finally be able to capitalize on it for myself.”
Alexander posted yet another positive result for himself in Kvitfjell, a place where he has reached the podium twice before. His time of 1:09.44 landed him just 0.02 seconds from a three-way tie for third.
“I’m very happy with how I skied today, and I was able to execute my plan for the most part all the way down,” Alexander said. “It’s tough to be so close to the podium, but that’s just racing sometimes, and I can look back on today and be proud of my result.”
With the podium finish and significant success on the penultimate speed weekend of the 2023-24 World Cup schedule, Read moved up to seven in the discipline’s rankings, cracking the top 25 and qualifying him for the final race of the season in Saalbach, Austria.
Alexander, ranked 20th in super-G after Sunday’s race, will also compete at the World Cup finals and will be joined by fellow Canadian Jack Crawford of Toronto, 12th, who was one of 10 skiers to ski out of the gates in Sunday’s super-G.
Aside from two Canadians in the top five in the event, Riley Seger (North Vancouver) finished 42nd, just ahead of Kyle Alexander (North Vancouver), who finished 43rd. Brodie Seger, (North Vancouver) rounded out Canadian finishers in 47th.
Odermatt extended his lead in the overall standings to a massive 918 points from Cyprien Sarrazin. The Frenchman sat out this weekend’s races with a calf injury.
Odermatt was on the podium in 14 of the past 15 super-G races and won the discipline title last season. He needs to finish 13th or better in the final race to win the globe again.
It was the ninth career World Cup super-G victory for Kriechmayr, who also has nine downhill wins. Three years ago, he won gold in both disciplines at the world championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
The men’s World Cup heads to the United States next for two series of technical races – in Palisades Tahoe, Calif., next weekend, and Aspen, Colo., on March 1-3.