GURGL, Austria (AP) — Olympic champion Clement Noel held on to his commanding first-run lead to take a men’s World Cup slalom Sunday for his second win in two weeks and 12th overall.
The Frenchman lost time in the final run but still finished 0.43 seconds ahead of Kristoffer Jakobsen, denying the Swedish skier what would have been his first World Cup win.
Atle Lie McGrath of Norway, who was second after the opening run, dropped to third, 0.44 behind.
Noel also won the season-opening slalom in Finland a week ago for his first World Cup victory in 22 months.
“It's for sure really, really important," Noel said when asked in a course-side TV interview about starting the season with back-to-back wins.
“We all want to be fast, we all want to win some races, but I know there is some really tough competition. So, I'm more than happy to win today.”
Noel’s French teammate Steven Amiez placed fourth for his career-best result, with his father, 1996 slalom World Cup winner Sebastien Amiez, watching from the finish area.
World champion Henrik Kristoffersen, who was runner-up to Noel last week, improved from 13th position to finish sixth.
Watched by 9,800 spectators, Noel positioned himself for the win with a dominating opening run.
The Frenchman raced flawlessly down the Kirchenkar course to build a big lead of more than eight-tenths as many racers struggled on the icy steep, with McGrath and Amiez the only racers to finish less than a second off the lead.
“It was difficult for me as well. The feeling was tough, the snow is very icy,” said Noel, who overcame some mistakes in his final run.
“The feeling was not so good for everyone, it was a real battle. In the second run, I was confident at the start, but then I had a really bad feeling ... I was not really sure that it was enough to win."
Out of the 62 starters for the first run, 18 didn't finish.
Slalom World Cup champion Manuel Feller was among the fastest starters but straddled a gate shortly after the first split time, a week after he also failed to finish the first race of the season.
Feller, who led an Austrian sweep of the podium in Gurgl last year, finished fifth or better in each slalom on his way to winning the discipline title.
Feller’s predecessor as the slalom season champion, Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, and Austrian great Marcel Hirscher both straddled a gate midway through their runs as well.
Pinheiro Braathen returned to the circuit this season with two fourth-place finishes after a one-year break and a switch from the Norwegian to the Brazilian federation.
Hirscher is the record eight-time overall champion and six-time winner of the slalom globe. He came out of retirement after five years this season to start for the Netherlands. Last week he finished his opening run too far behind to qualify for the second.
German skier Linus Strasser, who won the classic races in Kitzbuehel and Schladming last season, finished the opening run outside the top 30 and didn’t qualify.
There are no men's World Cup races next weekend as the circuit travels to Beaver Creek, Colorado for a downhill, super-G and giant slalom on Dec. 6-8.
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The Associated Press
