Von Allmen claims second world gold as Swiss sweep team combined

SAALBACH: Newly-crowned downhill champion Franjo von Allmen and Loic Meillard claimed gold to lead an impressive Swiss cleansweep of the podium in the men´s team combined at the World Ski Championships in Saalbach on Wednesday.

Von Allmen, who won individual downhill gold on Sunday, had been second fastest down the downhill section while Meillard was 10th quickest in the slalom, good enough for a winning aggregate time of 2min 42.38sec.

Alexis Monney, fastest in the downhill, and Tanguy Nef won silver, at 0.27sec, while the ski-mad country´s fourth-ranked pairing of Stefan Rogentin and Marc Rochat claimed bronze, a further 0.16sec adrift.

“It´s crazy,” said Von Allmen, whose two gold medals emulated American Breezy Johnson, who backed up her downhill win with victory in the women´s combined alongside Mikaela Shiffrin.

“But we shouldn´t have too many races like this because it was crazy to follow, nerve-wise.” Meillard added: “Having three Swiss teams on the podium, it´s incredible. “I don´t know what´s happening in this team, everyone is crazy.”

The pair´s victory means that Switzerland have won the opening three of the five men´s races in Saalbach, team leader Marco Odermatt having stormed to super-G victory. The sole medal for the Swiss women has been a team combined silver for the experienced duo of Lara Gut-Behrami and Wendy Holdener.

The latter was also part of the foursome that claimed silver in the mixed team parallel, the opening event of the champs that run until Sunday. Wednesday´s race had been delicately poised after the opening downhill, the slalom made all that harder as conditions deteriorated in warm temperatures following early rain.

Benjamin Ritchie held his nerve to take the lead for the United States along with Ryan Cochran-Siegle with 11 racers to come. There was then a dramatic flurry of racers who failed to finish after straddling gates high up the course as they pushed for victory.