Henrik Kristoffersen takes slalom World Cup lead with Garmisch-Partenkirchen victory
The Norwegian put in two excellent runs on difficult courses to take his third career win at the German resort. Manuel Feller was second ahead of Clement Noel.
Alpine Skiing
Reigning slalom World Cup champion Henrik Kristoffersen claimed his first victory of the season at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany on Wednesday (4 January).
The Norwegian was 0.71 clear of his rivals after the first run, and ended up with a winning margin of 1.22 from Manuel Feller of Austria with France's Olympic champion Clement Noel third.
He told FIS afterwards, "After three second places in a row, it's good to win. I was pretty calm at the start actually. I thought the second run... the conditions were rough but not so bad. I've skied in worse. And there were some gates which were really nice to ski and I think I took pretty good advantage of that, skiing smart and not risking too much. But, in general, a really good day.
"I tried to focus on the technique, on the tactical stuff in the course and that's it. I can't do more. I can't change anything else."
The second descent was a real struggle as the track rutted badly with Italian Stefano Gross, who was 26th after the first run, staying in the lead as skier after skier failed to beat his total time.
Eventually, Daniel Yule - fifth at the midway point - eclipsed him by just eight-hundredths having lost almost all of his 2.49-second advantage.
Feller immediated overtook the Swiss with a fine second run, taking the lead by 0.49 with just three skiers to go.
He was guaranteed a podium finish when Noel could only go second, 0.24 behind, before the noise rose for Linus Strasser.
The home favourite was a full second up at the second intermediate checkpoint, but then fell to groans from the crowd.
No such problems for Kristoffersen who, despite a couple of hairy moments, completed his third win at Garmisch having taken both races here last season.
It was his 29th World Cup win and his first on the Van Deer skis launched by his old rival Marcel Hirscher last year.
Lucas Braathen, who led the slalom World Cup standings at the start of the day, and fellow Norwegian Atle Lie McGrath were both disqualified after straddling gates on the first run.
Men's World Cup Slalom, Garmisch-Partenkirchen results (top 10):
- Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR) 1:48.37
- Manuel Feller (AUT) +1.22
- Clement Noel (FRA) +1.46
- Daniel Yule (SUI) +1.71
- Stefano Gross (ITA) +1.79
- Tommaso Sala (ITA) +1.83
- Marc Rochat (SUI) +1.86
- Loic Meillard (SUI) +1.96
- Fabio Gstrein (AUT) +1.98
- Alexander Steen Olsen (NOR) +2.03