World Cup in Montafon

ÖSV boarders ready for the hunt for the super Canadian

Alessandro Hämmerle (left) and Jakob Dusek (center) chasing Eliot Grondin.(Bild: Peter Weihs/Kronenzeitung)

"If anyone deserves to win the overall World Cup this winter, it's Eliot Grondin. Hats off to his performance," says local hero Alessandro "Izzi" Hämmerle, paying tribute to his Canadian rival ahead of the first race on Saturday (14:15) in Silvretta Montafon. 

A ninth place is enough for the 22-year-old from Quebec to wrap up his first victory in the overall World Cup - just three races before the end of the season. This also makes Izzi, a three-time winner of the big crystal globe, go into raptures. "You can learn a lot from Eliot, especially when it comes to choosing lines in the corners. I wasn't blessed with that kind of skill at his age."

Despite the competition: the mutual respect between Alessandro Hämmerle (left) and Eliot Grondin (right) is great.(Bild: Peter Weihs/Kronenzeitung)

Training and qualifying gave courage
But even if the battle for the overall World Cup victory has probably already been decided, the ÖSV camp certainly won't let Grondin win the home World Cup in Montafon without a fight. Quite the opposite. "We were already closer in training and qualifying than in the races. That gives me confidence for Saturday and Sunday," says Olympic champion Hämmerle, who finished fourth with a less than ideal final sector, losing 0.39 seconds to qualifying winner Grondin and finishing directly behind world champion Jakob Dusek (+0.16). "Eliot has an incredible run," says Dusek. "But we've already seen this season that he's beatable. I definitely want to be right at the front."

Eliot Grondin (l.) entered the final 32 as the winner of the qualification. Luca Hämmerle (right) had to do a detention, but also made it into the final heats as seventh in the second qualifying heat.(Bild: Peter Weihs/Kronenzeitung)

Luca Hämmerle had to do detention - with success
The other local heroes wanted to do the same. Like Julian Lüftner, who finished 12th in the final heats and still saw some room for improvement. Luca Hämmerle was also delighted: with the seventh-best time in the second qualifying heat, he was the fourth Austrian to make it into the final heats of the top 32 in 24th place: "Thank goodness! It would have been bitter if I'd had to watch my home race."