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Von Allmen claims second world gold as Swiss sweep team combined / Photo: © AFP
Von Allmen claims second world gold as Swiss sweep team combined
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.
The race had been delicately poised after the opening downhill, the slalom made all that harder as conditions deteriorated in warm temperatures.
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.
Among them were Switzerland's Daniel Yule, France's Olympic champion Clement Noel and Austrian fan favourite Manuel Feller.
Rochat did enough to ensure his Swiss pairing snatched the provisional lead.
Then it was down to the last three in tough, rutted conditions.
But there was immediate heartbreak for Dominik Paris and Alex Vinatzer as the latter skied out.
Then came the 28-year-old Meillard, with a 1.06sec advantage over Rogentin and Rochat. And he made no mistake in his 13th world championship start.
He perfectly judged his attack, not overforcing his speed down the tight, turny course on the Uli Maier piste.
That left Monney's partner Nef, with a paltry lead of just two-hundredths of a second from the downhill section -- and everything to do.
He immediately lost time up high, but pushed once more into the lead.
The 15,000-strong crowd packed around the finish area waited with bated breath as he laboured down, cheering as he battled over the line in second place.
Nef was quickly enveloped by Von Allmen and the four other Swiss podium-topping racers who roared in delight at their dominant display in the Austrian resort.
P.Yeo--SG
