Olympic round up: diploma for Hoffmann

Hoffmann races towards an eighth place finish on the Grizzly piste Keystone

Graübunden skier Ambrosi Hoffmann was Switzerland's best performer in the prestigous Olympic downhill, finishing Sunday's race in eighth place.

As expected the Swiss ski team struggled to get anywhere near the podium but for once their fierce rivals from Austria weren’t able to completely dominate the event.

While a gold medal for Fritz Strobl certainly kept the Austrian team happy, Norway’s Lasse Kjus managed to sneak in ahead of pre-race favourite Stephan Eberharter to take the silver.

Eberharter, who has led Austria’s march through this World Cup season with five downhill victories from eight races, had to settle for the bronze.

“It was not a great run, it didn’t go as I had expected,” said Eberharter afterwards. “Everyone expected me to get gold but I was prepared for that not to happen, so it’s no big problem. I still have the super-G to look forward to.”

Fourteenth place for Cuche

While Hoffmann was able to scrape into the diploma places with his top eight finish, the rest of the Swiss team left the Grizzly piste empty-handed. Didier Cuche, who is seen as one of Switzerland’s strongest medal hopes in the super-G and giant slalom, finished the downhill in 14th place, one place ahead of team-mate Franco Cavegn.

Didier Defago, the fourth member of the Swiss downhill team, came in 21st.

Hartmann ninth in nordic combined

After an impressive start in the jumping section of the nordic combined, Switzerland’s Andy Hartmann just missed out on a diploma on Sunday.

Lying in ninth place going into the 15km cross-country race, Hartmann was unable to ski his way into the top eight, eventually missing out on the diploma by just one and a half seconds.

Hartmann’s ninth place finish was nevertheless the best by a Swiss athlete in the individual nordic combined since Hippolyt Kempf’s sixth place at the 1994 Lillehammer Games.

swissinfo with agencies