SCHLADMING, Austria — Timon Haugan gained a males’s World Cup evening slalom on Wednesday to present the Norwegian ski group its second victory in two days.
HT Picture
Haugan beat Austrians Manuel Feller and Fabio Gstrein for his second win of the season, a day after teammate Alexander Steen Olsen had triumphed in a large slalom on the identical hill.
“This is crazy, this is the best one so far. Schladming is just different,” Haugan stated.
It was the final males’s slalom earlier than the Feb. 4-16 world championships in close by Saalbach-Hinterglemm, the place Haugan gained final March when the resort hosted the World Cup finals.
“With the last win and the win in Saalbach last year it’s hard not to be one of the favorites,” Haugan stated.
Watched by 22,500 spectators, Haugan improved from second place as first-run chief Linus Strasser, who gained the annual evening race final 12 months, dropped to fourth.
The German carried a lead of greater than three-tenths of a second into the ultimate run, however misplaced components of that benefit at each cut up time.
Strasser has not gained since his back-to-back triumphs inside 4 days within the basic slaloms of Kitzbuehel and Schladming final 12 months.
Six days earlier than the nation hosts the worlds, Feller and Gstrein earned the primary podium ends in slalom this season for the Austrian group.
Feller gained the World Cup slalom title final 12 months however has struggled to duplicate the shape and consistency that earned him the globe.
For Gstrein, it was the primary top-three results of his World Cup profession after ending fifth a number of occasions, most just lately on the basic slalom in Adelboden a couple of weeks in the past.
Olympic champion Clement Noel, who led the self-discipline standings earlier than the race after successful 4 occasions, together with in Kitzbeuhel final Sunday, was 0.71 off the lead after the primary run earlier than snowboarding out in his second.
Since Noel failed to attain factors, Henrik Kristoffersen went prime of the slalom season standings once more, three factors away from the Frenchman. Kristoffersen completed 1.18 seconds behind his Norwegian teammate Haugan in eighth.
The boys’s World Cup has another race earlier than the worlds: a downhill in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, on Sunday.
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