The Swede Sara Hector turned to victory yesterday in the second giant slalom in Courchevel, France. The 29-year-old celebrated her first in Kühtai almost exactly seven years ago. It was the first ever World Cup triumph for a Swedish ski racer since Frida Hansdotter’s slalom triumph in January 2017 in Flachau. Mikaela Shiffrin was also delighted with her second place after the win the day before. The best Austrian was Ramona Siebenhofer in seventh place.
“It was a battle with the head and everything, so difficult, but I pulled it off,” said Hector, who also prevented Shiffrin’s third giant slalom coup this season.
With second place, the 72-time World Cup winner increased her lead in the overall standings over the Italian Sofia Goggia (who was eliminated again on Tuesday) to 115 points. After her 114th place on the podium, she is now number four in the cross-gender World Cup best list with Austria’s ski legend Annemarie Moser-Pröll.
There was also a lot of effort among the ÖSV athletes, especially in the second run on difficult slope conditions. “The second round was really a fight, very hard. Hats off to what the first three conjured up, ”said Siebenhofer.
Stephanie Brunner also made it into the top ten in ninth (+1.71), Katharina Truppe landed immediately behind in eleventh (+2.21). There were also points for Elisa Mörzinger (19th) from Altenfeld.
Noel fell before the last gate
Austria’s slalom men’s team, on the other hand, suffered a serious bankruptcy in the last race before Christmas. After the failures of Manuel Feller and Marco Schwarz, Michael Matt was the 20th best Austrian at the floodlight classic in Madonna di Campiglio on Wednesday evening. The victory went to Sebastian Foss-Solevaag after the clear leading Frenchman Clement Noel fell in front of the last goal.
It was not the French who were in top form who won the traditional slalom in Italy, but the world champion from Norway. Noel was already way ahead in the final, but then had to hit the ground shortly before the finish line. “I probably thought it was over,” said Noel. “That’s ski racing.” For Foss-Solevaag it was the second World Cup victory.
In the ÖSV camp there were lamentations about the unfamiliar conditions after the debacle – it was the historically worst performance in Madonna ever. “We mainly trained on ice, that was probably a mistake,” said racing director Andreas Puelacher. On the Canalone Miramonti slope, however, ice changed with aggressive, grippy passages. With Feller and Schwarz, the strongest were thrown off a wave in the first round.
Source: Nachrichten
