Slalom leader Schwarz gets 2nd win in Austrian night race

SCHLADMING, Austria (AP) — Austrian skier Marco Schwarz improved from sixth position after the opening run to win a men’s World Cup night slalom by a big margin on Tuesday.

Schwarz finished 0.68 seconds ahead of Clément Noël, and another French skier, Alexis Pinturault, was 0.82 behind in third.

Pinturault posted the fastest second-run time as he climbed from 11th.

It was the sixth podium result for Schwarz in seven slaloms this season.

The Austrian, who extended his lead in the discipline standings, previously won in Adelboden and became the first to win two slaloms this season, after the first six races produced as many different winners.

His Austrian teammate Manuel Feller held a commanding lead after the opening run but skied out after only six gates into his final run.

Feller’s mishap resembled Schwarz’s fate in last year’s race, when he led after the opening run but failed to finish his second.

Sebastian Foss-Solevåg of Norway was second after the opening run but dropped to fourth after a problem with his goggles midway through the final run when the lens came off.

Henrik Kristoffersen, who won the season-long slalom title last year, was 24th after a disappointing first run but was third fastest in the final run to finish 11th.

Retiring after 21 years on the World Cup circuit, Julien Lizeroux just missed qualifying for the second run in the final race of his career, four hours after his girlfriend, Tessa Worley, won a women’s giant slalom in Italy.

The Frenchman took off his bib in the finish area and dropped it, while saying into a TV camera: “Lizeroux: Out!”

His best years were 2009 and 2010, when he placed third and second respectively in the slalom standings and won silver medals in slalom and super combined at the 2009 world championships in Val d’Isère.

Lizeroux and Worley were both part of the French team that won the team event at the worlds in St. Moritz four years ago.

The night slalom is usually attended by up to 45,000 spectators lining up along both sides of the course, but no visitors were allowed this time amid strict anti-coronavirus measures in Austria.

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