Offside after ten seconds of racing, the French skier missed his event this Wednesday in Italy.
Clément Noël made a mistake in the first round and was eliminated from the Madonna di Campiglio (Italy) slalom, counting for the Alpine Ski World Cup, on Wednesday.
Noël, Olympic champion in the specialty, was surprised by the first movement of the terrain and was forced to retire after only ten seconds of racing. After a perfect start to the season with two victories in the first two slaloms of the winter, Noël is going through a difficult patch. He injured his right ankle during the giant slalom in Val d'Isère in mid-December and had to give up the slalom in the French resort the next day, then finished sixth in the slalom at Alta Badia (Italy) at the end of December despite a right ankle still painful.
McGrath in the lead, three Frenchmen in the second round
The Norwegian Atle Lie McGrath set the best time in this first round of the Madonna di Campiglio slalom. At the halfway mark, McGrath is clearly ahead of the Swiss Loïc Meillard, 2nd at 62/100th, and the Croatian Samuel Kolega, 3rd at 65/100th, while the Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen, leader of the slalom World Cup, is relegated to provisional 7th place, 1 sec 09/100th from his compatriot. McGrath, 24, will be aiming for a third World Cup victory, almost three years after his first two successes in March 2022.
This first route eliminated several candidates for victory, Noël but also the Norwegian Timon Haugan and the Austrian Marco Schwarz.
The French chances now rest on the shoulders of Steven Amiez who at the age of 26 can aim for a first podium in the World Cup: he finished the first round in 6th place, 99/100th behind McGrath, 34/100th behind third. Three other French people will take part in the second round, which will kick off at 8:45 p.m. Antoine Azzolin and Paco Rassat are respectively 24th at 2 sec 18/100th and 25th at 2 sec 19/100th, while Victor Muffat-Jeandet, 30th and last qualifier at 2 sec 39/100th from McGrath, will start in first position on the second route.
See you Saturday in Switzerland
Noël, who in recent weeks has favored treatment over training to heal his ankle, finished second in the Madonna di Campiglio slalom last winter, his best result in the Italian resort.
He will be back in competition on Saturday with the slalom of Adelboden (Switzerland), the second, after that of Madonna of the five slaloms out of the twelve on the season calendar scheduled for January, before those of Wengen still in Switzerland, Kitzbühel and Schladming in Austria.
