Olympic slalom champion Clement Noel made it two wins out of two at the start of his 2024/25 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup campaign at Gurgl, Austria on Sunday (24 November).
The Frenchman is certainly making up for drawing a blank last season after winning last weekend in Levi. He took a big lead of 0.88 seconds into the second run and, despite a couple of major errors on his second descent, had enough in hand to prevail by 0.43. Kristoffer Jakobsen rose from eighth to second with Atle Lie McGrath of Norway in third. Steven Amiez made it a great day for France with a career-best fourth place.
“The conditions were tough so I’m really happy,” Noel told FIS afterwards. “In the second run, I was quite confident at the start but then I had a really bad feeling. I tried to ski a litle bit better in the steep and then I made more mistakes at the bottom so I was really not sure it would be enough to win.
“I had a good margin in the first run and then I was able to win the race but, for sure, that second run was a real fight.”
Sharp turns caught out plenty on the second run, but Timon Haugan excelled with a fine display of controlled aggression. Having been 26th on the first run, the Norwegian was faster than anyone on the second and watched a succession of skiers fail to eclipse his aggregate time as he ended up in the top 10.
Loic Meillard was third in Levi last week but only 14th after the first run. He took the lead from Haugan with a solid performance and eventually finished fifth, one spot ahead of Henrik Kristoffersen.
They were overhauled by Jakobsen with the Swede building on his excellent second run from last Sunday. McGrath – lying second after the first run – missed out on the lead by just one-hundredth before Noel clinched victory.
Three of the stars of the circuit failed to make the second run. Reigning slalom World Cup champion Manuel Feller straddled a gate early on for his second DNF in two races. Lucas Pinheiro Braathen also straddled with Marcel Hirscher falling after making a very attacking start.
The next technical event for the men on the World Cup circuit is a giant slalom at Beaver Creek in Colorado on 8 December.
Swiss
