Last start number wins 11. Helmissimo

The signs for the 11th edition of the South Tyrol Helmissimo 2018 on Saturday were anything but promising. Snowfall, fog and temperatures around freezing threatened to throw a spanner in the works for the organizers of the Helm/Vierschach Raiffeisen sports club. But the piste from the 2.000 m high Helm to Vierschach, with its 110 directional gates, turned out to be selective, pimple-hard and extremely resistant. And in the end, Matthias Oberhammer, who started the race with the last starting number 331, delivered a sensation.

The Innichner ski queen is in seventh heaven It was well known to all 330 amateur racers that the Helmissimo is only a race for diehards. Nevertheless, athletes from 10 nations rose to the challenge and even 52 brave women plunged into the 4,5 km long giant slalom, which was flagged off by Alex Happacher. The countless ribs and blows took their toll on the runners and some of them could no longer feel their thighs when they reached the finish line. Karoline Trojer, the uncrowned Helmissimo queen from San Candido, was unimpressed. She confidently won the race for the seventh time in a row since 2012 with a time of 3'47.16. Katharina Sulzenbacher (3'53.79) and Lee Egarter from ASC Drei Zinnen (4'05.72) followed in second and third place. A newcomer makes the veterans look old Completely different for men. The hunt for Mr. Helmissimo 2017 from Taufers, Hermann Oberlechner, was on. Although Helmissimo series winner Ossi PramSOLER was absent due to injury, Carinthian Stefan Lussnig, but also Marco De Martin Topranin from Comelico and the winner of the 1st Helmissimo 2008, Daniel Klettenhammer, wanted to be on course for the podium. Lussnig set a brilliant best time of 3'54.99. Stefan Miribung with start number 298 only missed it by 90 hundredths. But when they were already exchanging congratulations at the finish and preparing to see new faces on the winner's podium, the young Innich native Matthias Oberhammer was startled by the interim. Oberhammer had start number 331 and was the last runner in the race. With a furious drive, he literally rolled up the field from behind and achieved the best running time with a tiny lead of 49 hundredths of a second over Lussnig. Oberhammer could hardly believe his luck at the finish. The team from the Innichen ski school with Karoline Trojer, Matthias Oberhammer, Theo Wisthaler, Arno Feichter and Manuel Summerer won the team ranking ahead of the Gölbnerblickhütte team (Stefan Lussnig, Daniel Klettenhammer, Thomas Loik, Thomas Schmidhofer, Robert Gasser) and the Holzbau Duregger team Klaus Gstinig, Sandra Obererlacher, Bernhard Kurzthaler, Markus Duregger and Florian Huter) Favorites get 3 Zinnen-Superkombi 2018 The giant slalom, which was marked by numerous failures, was the last of the big three after the Gigantissimo and the Comelissimo to make it to the final of the Drei Zinnen Superkombi 2018. The Carinthian Stefan Lussnig defended his title for the third time in a row and decided the combination ranking of the three most demanding giant slaloms of the Three Peaks region, ahead of Marco De Martin Topranin from the Alta Val Comelico and the Austrian David Gruber. In the women's category, the 20-year-old young hopeful from Vierschach Katharina Sulzenbacher repeated her combination success from last year and won ahead of the Austrian Gerda Gruber and Agnes Kirchler from ASV Helm-Vierschach.

The Helmissimo ski party, in which athletes from 10 nations took part, was celebrated after the award ceremony until well into the night - in a sense as the end of an unforgettable racing season.

Christian Tschurtschenthaler

Football

Italy

International leagues

International

Winter sports

Tennis

Other sports

Motorsport

Cycling

Watersports

Events

Favorites

Last start number wins 11. Helmissimo

Sensational victory in the longest giant slalom in the Pustertal – Sulzenbacher and Lussnig win the Drei Zinnen super combination

Suggestions

Comments (0)