“That’s a damn good feeling!” – Elian Lehto scored the all-time Finnish performance at the Kitzbühel carnival | Sport

Elian Lehto was 11th in Saturday’s downhill in Kitzbühel. He reached the same ranking on Friday as well.

Speed ​​calculator Elian Lehto continued his stellar performances in Kitzbühel, Austria, when he finished 11th in Saturday’s downhill and eclipsed his all-time Finnish ranking in the World Cup men’s downhill on Friday.

Especially the smooth sliding part went well for the Finn. Sports expert Kalle Palander admired Lehto’s mature and confident landing on the air.

– It’s hard! And with what confidence! No reckless risk-taking, which I feared. Once again, it was fast on the slide, Palander beamed.

Like yesterday, Lehto was initially tenth at the finish line, but one finisher at the end got by again. He was more satisfied than on Friday, when he lost the race.

– A really good feeling – or a damn good feeling! I gave my all on a difficult and icy track. The first ones got to set in the sun, but the sun didn’t show much to me. I couldn’t have done harder, Lehto said in Ski Sport Finland’s press release.

Thanks to his performances, Lehto rose to 23rd place in the men’s diving cup. The top 25 of the overall competition will make it to the World Cup finals, which Lehto has named as his goal for the season.

Lehto plans to celebrate its great weekend in moderation.

– Nothing more surprising here, we should get to lunch now. The whole village is full of carnival, so there would definitely be places to party. Here, the skier feels like a rock star when the gang is so excited about alpine skiing and they are in a festive mood anyway.

Acquaintances on the podium

In the World Cup Riitta Ollikka has been at its best tenth 51 years ago. Among the men, the best Finnish skydiving performance before Lehto was Andreas Romarin place 14, in Schladming 11 years ago.

Before the Kitzbühel Games, 23-year-old Lehto’s best finish in the Alpine Skiing World Cup was 20th.

Lehto made headlines last season when he got into the World Cup points in the downhill for the first time. Lehto succeeded in that already in his third World Cup competition and was 20th in the Val Gardena plunge. Before this, the Finn had reached a tougher World Cup place in the downhill last time in 2016, when Andreas Romar was 19th in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Lehto trains together with the Swiss alpine team. The superstar who finished second in Kitzbühel on Saturday and third on Friday Marco Odermatt has become familiar to Lehto.

– Odermatt is a relaxed, nice guy and a great measuring stick for what needs to be done to get to the top, Lehto told Urheilu in October.

France won the race on Saturday Cyprien Sarrazin, which left Odermatti almost a second behind (+0.91). The third was Italy Dominic Paris (+1.44). Sarrazin won Kitzbühel’s legendary steeplechase also on Friday.

Lehto lost to Sarrazin by 2.03, but instead of third place, for example, the difference was only 0.59 seconds.

Updated at 15:37: Added Lehto’s comments and race results.