Premiere at 34: Casse is class in Val Gardena

Two years ago, Mattia Casse stood on the podium for the first time in his career in Val Gardena. Now the 34-year-old has topped it on the Saslong.

20 December 2024

From: dl

Mattia Casse was 32 years old when he first stood on the podium in December 2022, finishing third in the downhill in Val Gardena. Two years later, the Piedmontese won his first World Cup race in the valley of the woodcarvers! In the Super-G on Friday, Casse had a dream run in the snowfall and distanced top favorite Marco Odermatt by 43 hundredths of a second. The Swiss ultimately finished third.

With starting number 10, Casse overtook the then leading Stefan Rogentin and Cameron Alexander by almost 6 tenths at the finish. He was already celebrating wildly. Casse was already aware at this point that he had mastered every section perfectly. Overall, the speed specialist from Italy took his fourth podium place in the World Cup on Friday.

Dominik Paris made a mistake in the middle section. © APA/afp / MARCO BERTORELLO

Dominik Paris also put in a decent performance. The Ultner was fast on his skis in soft conditions. Only in the middle section did Paris stray from the ideal line once. This really annoyed the 35-year-old at the finish. Nevertheless, it was enough for 10th place in the end. In this condition, Paris is certainly a hot candidate in the downhill on Saturday (11.45 a.m.).

Goldberg causes nerves to flutter

The race was interrupted for a while after the Austrian Daniel Danklmaier with starting number 18 had a serious fall. When everyone was expecting a clear victory for Casse, Jared Goldberg with number 26 catapulted himself out of the start house. The American was faster than the Italian at times and even reached top speed in the finish area.

Jared Goldberg narrowly missed the win. © APA/afp / MARCO BERTORELLO

In the end, Goldberg had to admit defeat by a measly hundredth of a second. But it was still the first podium finish of the 33-year-old's career. The Americans and Norwegians are traditionally fast in Val Gardena, as was also shown by the fourth-placed Scandinavian Fredrik Möller. Christof Innerhofer lost almost two seconds to Casse. The local Val Gardena hero Max Perathoner is still coming with start number 60.