Braathen wins 1st World Cup slalom of the season

VAL d’ISÈRE, France (AP) — A flawless second run helped Lucas Braathen win the first World Cup slalom of the season on Sunday for the third victory of his career.

The Norwegian skier let out a yell and thumped his chest after seeing his time on the board and then he just had to wait for his compatriot and defending World Cup slalom champion Henrik Kristoffersen, who had a slender lead of 0.07 seconds from the first run.

However, Kristoffersen made a couple of errors on the Face de Bellevarde course in Val d’Isère to finish sixth, 1.35 behind Braathen.

The 22-year-old Braathen finished 0.84 ahead of Austria’s Manuel Feller. Loïc Meillard of Switzerland was third, 0.98 behind Braathen.

Olympic champion Clément Noël, silver medallist Johannes Strolz and Atle Lie McGrath went out of the race in the first run after straddling gates as three of the first nine skiers failed to finish.

Noël won on home snow in Val d’Isère last year.

The battle for the slalom title was wide open last season with seven different winners in the first seven races in the discipline. It was a third slalom season title for Kristoffersen.

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