Keystone
Two Norwegians put their stamp on the first run of the slalom in Alta Badia. Timon Haugan and Atle Lie McGrath set themselves apart in the classification. The best Swiss skiers are Daniel Yule and Loïc Meillard.
Yule and Meillard in 6th and 8th place were more than a second behind Haugan’s best time. Nevertheless, they are among the skiers who have a chance of finishing on the podium. Clément Noël in third place is just under a second behind Haugan. The Frenchman, who won the first two slaloms of the winter, had to miss the start of the slalom in Val d’Isère due to an ankle sprain.
Haugan leads the intermediate rankings by 31 hundredths ahead of McGrath, thus laying the foundations for the first top result of the season. Ranks 14, 9 and 8 in the first three slaloms were not to his liking. McGrath has more to show for it. In Val d’Isère he finished 2nd, in Gurgl 3rd.
The first phase of the winter has also been completely different for Yule and Meillard. The 22nd, 13th and 20th places are testimony to the fact that the Valais skier has not yet found his feet. Meillard, on the other hand, has impressed right from the start with places 3, 5 and 3. In Alta Badia, however, the Frenchman is once again plagued by back problems.
The other Swiss skiers lost a lot more time – Tanguy Nef almost two and a half seconds, Luca Aerni, who recently impressed in the giant slalom, almost three seconds and Ramon Zenhäusern, winner of the last slalom in Alta Badia four years ago, almost three and a half seconds. Marc Rochat was eliminated in the first run for the fourth time in a row.
Swiss
