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Von Allmen at the double as Nef seals Olympic team combined gold / Photo: © AFP
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Von Allmen at the double as Nef seals Olympic team combined gold
Newly-crowned Olympic downhill champion Franjo von Allmen won a second gold of the Winter Games when he partnered Swiss teammate Tanguy Nef to victory in the team combined event in Bormio on Monday.
Von Allmen had been fourth fastest in the downhill down the Stelvio course before Nef laid down a near-faultless slalom run for a winning aggregate time of 2min 44.04sec.
Another Swiss pairing in runaway World Cup overall leader Marco Odermatt and world slalom champion Loic Meillard tied for silver alongside the Austrian duo of Vincent Kriechmayr and Manuel Feller. Both teams were 0.99sec off the winning pace.
The team combined event, which is making its Olympic debut at the Milan-Cortina Games, comprised two racers from the same nation racing a downhill and a slalom, with the fastest aggregate time earning the gold medal.
In-form Italian speedster Giovanni Franzoni, fresh from winning a silver medal in the individual downhill behind Von Allmen on Saturday, had set up teammate Alex Vinatzer with a shot at Olympic gold after setting the fastest time in the opening downhill.
But it was not to be as Vinatzer faltered on his slalom run, managing only the 18th fastest time, the couple eventually finishing seventh.
There was a distinct Scandinavian tinge to the leaderboard early on as first Norway's Timon Haugan, then teammate Atle Lie McGrath and finally Finland's Eduard Hallberg lay down fast tracks.
Austria's Fabio Gstrein handed his Austria 2 team the advantage before Feller blasted down the second fastest slalom run to ensure he and Kreichmayr sat provisionally atop the times.
That left the top six, France's reigning Olympic slalom champion Clement Noel up first, but failing to fire, he and Nils Allegre finishing joint fifth.
Tommaso Sala pushed for Italy 2, but there was to be no second Olympic medal for his downhill partner Dominik Paris as the pair finished off the podium alongside the French duo.
Then came the powerful trio of Swiss teams, Nef into the starting blocks with partner Von Allmen, draped in a Swiss flag, a nervous onlooker at the finish area.
The slalom specialist laid down a fantastic run, clocking a leading 51.82sec to hand Switzerland 2 a psychological advantage with just three teams to come.
Nef's teammate Meillard, Odermatt's partner, was next down the slope but was unable to dislodge his Swiss rivals.
Daniel Yule, representing Switzerland 3 along with Alexis Monney, made a huge error to ensure they finished nowhere near a podium place in 13th spot.
All eyes turned on Vinatzer in the start hut, with Franzoni having given him a slim 0.17sec advantage from the downhill.
The 26-year-old Swiss, with four World Cup podiums to his name but no victory, looked nowhere near as slick as Nef and Feller, chopping down the course and losing time at every interval.
Countries were allowed to enter multiple teams: skiing powerhouses Switzerland, Italy and Austria each had four teams entered on Monday, while France had three. Just nine countries were represented.
M.Yoo--SG
