Bormio (Italy) (AFP) - Marco Odermatt underlined his World Cup credentials with a stunning victory in Thursday's Super-G at Bormio, just hours after Austrian triple Olympic champion Matthias Mayer had announced his immediate retirement.
The 25-year-old Swiss skier, who won the overall World Cup title last season, flew down the fast and tricky slopes, clattering gates along the way, in 1 minute 29.27 seconds.
It was good enough to book him a fifth win of the season, Odermatt finishing 0.64sec faster than Mayer's teammate Vincent Kriechmayr, who won Wednesday's downhill.
"It was a perfect run, nearly, especially from split one to the finish," said Odermatt, who had to make do with fourth in the downhill.
"It was a very difficult race.Icy, a difficult course.You had to ski smart, I guess, and use a little bit tactics but it worked out for me.
"I had the feeling it was fast but that I was one step ahead.Yesterday I was always one step behind, and that makes it so much easier."
Another Swiss, Loic Meillard, took third, 1.22sec behind his compatriot.
It was the eleventh podium of his career and his second this season following the third place he scored in the slalom at Val d'Isere earlier in December.
Only seven skiers finished within two seconds of the winner, a rare occurence at this level.
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde was one of those who missed that cut.
The Norwegian, who started the day joint top of the super-G standings with Odermatt, gave his all but almost fell twice and nearly missed a late gate which left him down the field in eighth.
"It was a tough one, trying to get the skis to grip," said Kilde.
"I tried my best but it is small margins in this sport.Odermatt is in his own world today.It's so icy, if you lose your grip you have no chance.But a new chance will come."
Odermatt now has a 329-point lead over Kilde in the overall standings and a 68-point advantage over the Norwegian in the discipline.
Mayer 'had enough'
Mayer did not start the event, having earlier announced his immediate retirement from skiing.
"I did my last inspection today.I don't want it enough any more," he told Austrian television ORF after looking at Thursday's course.
The 32-year-old Austrian made his World Cup debut in Sestriere in February 2009 and went on to rack up 11 World Cup victories and 45 podiums.
His greatest successes, however, came at the Olympics where he outstripped his father Helmut Mayer's achievement of a silver medal in the 1988 Games in Calgary.
Matthias won gold in the downhill in Sochi in 2014 and followed that with further Super-G golds in Pyeongchang in 2018 and Beijing earlier this year, when he also won a downhill bronze.
"I had a wonderful last season with a third Olympic title and I started this one well," he said."I'm happy.But I've had enough."
The next World Cup event is a slalom in Garmisch on 4 January with the super-G returning in Wengen on January 13.
