World champion Henrik Kristoffersen wins World Cup slalom for 1st victory in nearly 2 years

VAL d’ISERE, France (AP) — World champion Henrik Kristoffersen won a men’s World Cup slalom Sunday for his first victory in nearly two years after first-run leader Steven Amiez saw his dreams of a first win dashed.

Kristoffersen had two flawless runs on the challenging Face de Bellevarde course to finish 0.52 seconds ahead of Norwegian teammate Atle Lie McGrath and 0.89 faster than Loic Meillard of Switzerland.

It was a first victory for Kristoffersen since he triumphed in the world championships in February 2023.

It also came with a bit of luck, with the absence of injured Olympic champion Clement Noel and a tumble for Amiez, who had beaten Kristoffersen by 0.32 in the first run for hopes of a first victory in front of a home crowd.

The 26-year-old Amiez had never finished on a World Cup podium and his previous best was fourth in Austria last month.

“First of all, sorry for Steven. He’s skiing really good and he will get there. So to the French public: ‘don’t worry, he will get there.’ And sorry about Noel. I wish we got to fight today,” the 30-year-old Kristoffersen said. “But yeah, very happy, very difficult today so experience is nice to have sometimes.”

It was a third victory in Val d’Isère for Kristoffersen, who won slaloms there in 2015 and 2016.

“Was eight years since I won here the first time. And it’s really good now because now they can’t say ‘it’s been a long time huh?’” Kristoffersen said with a laugh.

“I had less worries (then), I was less nervous. Now everyone expects me to do good all the time because I’ve been almost 90 times on the podium, won a lot of races, everything. So the expectation is always there, and also from my side. But of course, I’m a little older, a little more calm I feel … maybe.”

Kristoffersen — who also tops the giant slalom leaderboard — moved 20 points above Noel in the slalom standings. He remained top of the overall standings, 18 points over McGrath and 110 ahead of defending champion Marco Odermatt, who does not compete in slaloms.

Reigning slalom World Cup champion Manuel Feller was joint-fourth on Sunday but the Austrian will have just been happy to have crossed the finish line.

Feller dominated last season — finishing fifth or better in each slalom on his way to winning the discipline title — but had failed to finish each of his previous four races, between slalom and giant slalom.

The two slalom races were won by Noel but he pulled out of the Val-d’Isère race in the morning after injuring his ankle in the giant slalom the previous day.

While the injury is not thought to be serious, Noel said he didn’t want to take any risks and hopes to return for the next slalom in Alta Badia in eight days.

Lucas Pinheiro Braathen finished with the same time as Feller, 0.95 behind Kristoffersen, after a much-improved second run sent him soaring up the standings from 26th and had him sitting in the leader’s seat for much of the time.

Marco Schwarz made his return after almost a year out injured and was 10th after the opening run, 1.73 behind Amiez. The Austrian straddled a gate and was one of several of the late skiers to fail to finish the second run as the light worsened.

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