In the practice round, Boštjan Kline was, characteristically, far behind the fastest players, but in he race itself, he again gave it his best, which was enough for a win. Foto: EPA
In the practice round, Boštjan Kline was, characteristically, far behind the fastest players, but in he race itself, he again gave it his best, which was enough for a win. Foto: EPA


"Wonderful! I skied well and I did everything I had to do. This is one of the best days in my career," said the 25-year-old Kline, who had patiently made his way to join the world’s best and finally lived to see the day when all the pieces came together to form a winning whole. He wasn’t put off by his average finish in the practice round (39th position); instead, he showed off his vast knowledge during the race itself. He had the fastest time at all intermediate timing positions, but because he had started as the fourth competitor, he had to endure a long wait to confirm that he was indeed the best.

Jansurd again the leader in the overall downhill standings

After the world champion Beat Feuz and the Erik Guay, the second-place finisher at the championships, attempted to beat his result without success, it was already becoming clear that Kline had a tremendous success in store for him. When Matthias Mayer, the Olympic gold medalist from Sochi, made his way to the finish line, things became very tense. At the penultimate timing position, the Austrian was still 43 hundredths of a second behind Kline, but he mastered the Tommy Moe curve and was just 19 hundredths behind at the finish line. This was his first podium position of the season. Kjetil Jansurd was third (+0.20) and is once again the leader of the overall downhill World Cup standings. (Kline is sixth.)

The only other Slovenian downhill win in the World Cup belongs to Jerman

Before Kline, the only Slovenian win in World Cup downhill races went to Andrej Jerman, who is now a coach in Norway and celebrated the arrival of his successor with the Slovenian team. The Tržič native won the top podium position in Garmisch in 2007 -- exactly ten years and one day ago. Jerman celebrated his second win in Bormio in 2009. “It’s certainly nice to realize that there aren’t many people who have managed to do this,” said Kline. For now, Slovenia has ten winners among male World Cup competitors.

Three other Slovenians competed in the race. Martin Čater won points by ending the race in the 29th position, but Klemen Kosi and Rok Perko were not fast enough.

S. J., T. O.; Translated by J. B.