Kristoffersen defies deteriorating course to win slalom
CHAMONIX, France (AP) — Henrik Kristoffersen defied worsening course conditions in the second run of a men’s World Cup slalom Sunday to land his second victory of the season.
Most of the top-ranked racers from the opening leg struggled on the rapidly deteriorating La Verte des Houches course, with the surface getting softer and softer as the sun came out in the afternoon after days of rain.
Kristoffersen was the last racer on course but managed to hold on to his first-run lead as he battled his way through the ruts.
The Norwegian beat Ramon Zenhäusern by 0.28 seconds and another Swiss skier, Sandro Simonet, by 0.66. Simonet improved from 30th position after the opening run as he benefited from his early start in the final.
Overall World Cup leader Alexis Pinturault, who was second after the opening run, shared eighth place with Manfred Mölgg, who improved from 27th.
Marco Schwarz dropped from third to fifth and failed to wrap up the World Cup slalom title. The Austrian still holds a 146-point lead over Zenhäusern with two slaloms remaining after the Feb. 8-21 world championships.
Clément Noël, who won the race on home snow Saturday, didn’t qualify for the second run after coming off the race line in the opening run when his skis crossed and nearly failed to make the next gate.
Kristoffersen had shown glimpses of his best slalom skills as he posted the fastest first-run time.
The Norwegian won the slalom season title for a second time last year but a victory in Italy in December had been his only previous podium finish in the current campaign.
A day after he skied out a few seconds into his opening run of the slalom won by Noël, Kristoffersen had an attacking, fluent run to take an advantage of 0.23 over Pinturault.
Sunday’s result marked Kristoffersen’s 19th career slalom win, and 23rd overall.
The win puts him in shared second place with Kjetil Jansrud on Norway’s all-time winners list. Only Aksel Lund Svindal had more wins, 36, when he retired two years ago.
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