Karina Schwartznau
Italy’s Giovanni Franzoni won his second gold at the junior world championship in Panorama, British Columbia. After a third-place finish in the super-G portion, Franzoni snagged his third medal of the series in the alpine combined.
Saturday’s super-G race left Franzoni in third, 0.41 seconds behind U.S. Ski Team member Isaiah Nelson, and in striking distance for Sunday’s alpine combined slalom run. Prior to Sunday, he hadn’t raced slalom since the opening NorAm’s at Copper Mountain. The speed-focused Italian had little slalom training this season but did not stop him from capturing the win by 0.06 seconds.
“It’s amazing, it’s my third medal here,” said Franzoni. “My run was quite good, I was always in control and it was enough for the title. I am pretty happy because this year I haven’t done a lot of training in slalom. It’s a good day for Italy.”
Behind Franzoni was a tie for the silver between Italian teammate Marco Abbruzzese and Swiss Franjo Von Allmen. Abbruzzese finished just off the podium in fourth in Saturday’s super-G.
“I just attacked from top to bottom because I really wanted this medal after yesterday’s race in super-G,” said Abbruzzese. “I was so close to the podium I did everything to achieve this medal.”
Sharing the silver was Von Allmen, who has now earned his third silver medal of the series. Von Allmen finished 0.13 seconds outside first place in the super-G and maintained his silver position with a solid slalom run.
“Another day, another medal,” said Von Allen. “I think I have to be a little faster and it will be the gold.”
Canada’s Logan Dunn was the top North American finisher in ninth place, 1.55 seconds out. After winning the super-G, U.S. member Nelson fell to 17th in the alpine combined. Teammate Copper Puckett who finished ninth in the super-G portion did not finish the slalom.
Day 4 of racing will continue on Monday with the mixed team parallel event.
RESULTS
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