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Beat Feuz waves to the fans after his last World Cup race in Switzerland
Photo:
FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP
The Swiss ski star Beat Feuz narrowly missed out on a place on the podium in his last race in front of his home crowd.
The Olympic champion from Beijing came fifth in the downhill World Cup in Wengen.
The fastest downhiller was the Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who had already won the Super-G the day before.
Second was the Swiss overall World Cup leader Marco Odermatt, 88 hundredths of a second behind Mattia Casse from Italy.
Feuz was only 24 hundredths of a second off the podium.
"That would have been the crowning glory, would have been possible," Feuz said after the race on ARD.
"But it was tough to drive." The 16-time World Cup winner complained about difficult snow conditions with limited visibility.
Nevertheless, Feuz was satisfied with his performance and was enthusiastically celebrated.
"A near-retiree in fifth place, that fits too."
In the coming week, the 35-year-old will start in Kitzbühel, then he will end his career.
"At some point it's just enough," said Feuz.
He announced the surprising decision to quit during the season just before Christmas.
Dreßen makes next comeback
The German speed specialists missed the top ten.
Romed Baumann came in 16th, the fans in the finish area sang him a little serenade on his 37th birthday.
Thomas Dreßen took 16th place on his comeback after an injury break of several weeks.
"It's quite emotional for me," Dreßen said after the race on ARD about the atmosphere at the Lauberhorn race, which he hadn't experienced for a long time.
The result is secondary: "For me, the top priority was that I'm having fun again." Dreßen only returned to the World Cup before the season after more than 1000 days, but injured his thigh in December and had to pause again.
Due to strong winds in the upper section, the athletes started from the reserve start.
A slalom is still on the agenda in Wengen on Sunday.
kyo