French skier Noel beats Hirscher for 2nd straight slalom win
21-year-old picks up 2nd career victory
Clement Noel wasted little time in confirming his status as one of slalom skiing's hottest prospects.
Six days after winning his first World Cup in Wengen, the 21-year-old French skier added a victory at another iconic World Cup venue on Saturday.
Skiing in dense snowfall, Noel won the slalom event of the Hahnenkamm races, posting the third-fastest time in the final run to beat seven-time overall champion Marcel Hirscher of Austria by 0.29 seconds.
"It's amazing," Noel said. "I can't realize I have won two races now. But I knew I was skiing fast this season. I will take the time to enjoy it."
Noel's French teammate Alexis Pinturault was 0.36 behind in third, followed by last year's winner, Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway, in fourth.
WATCH | Noel takes another slalom title
First-run leader Ramon Zenhaeusern of Switzerland made several mistakes in his final run and the Olympic silver medallist dropped to sixth.
It wasn't a great day for Canadians on the slopes — Erik Read did not qualify for the second run while teammates Trevor Philp and Phil Brown failed to finish the first run.
Noel became the first French skier to win back-to-back slaloms since former two-time world champion Jean-Baptiste Grange won two races in three days, in Kitzbuehel and Schladming, eight years ago.
Noel's wins in Wengen and Kitzbuehel are crowning a breakthrough month for the French skier, who won the junior world title last year.
He finished fourth in Zagreb in the first week of January and just missed out on his first win a week later, coming runner-up to Hirscher in Adelboden.
Hirscher had won 11 of the previous 14 slaloms, but was not in the lead after the first run for a fifth straight race. The Austrian trailed by 0.88 in ninth, but clocked the fastest time in a frenetic final run, which saw him climb seven places in the standings.
Hirscher's main slalom rival in recent years, Henrik Kristoffersen, was 0.92 off going into the final run, and posted the second-fastest time to finish fourth. The Norwegian's last World Cup win came in Kitzbuehel a year ago.
Hirscher remained top of the discipline standings with 576 points, followed by Noel on 401 and Kristoffersen on 369.
Apart from the snowfall, the icy surface and a tough course set in the first run made for difficult conditions on the Ganslernhang. Only 40 from 79 starters managed to finish their runs.
Manuel Feller, who finished runner-up to Noel last week, posted the fourth-fastest time but the Austrian was later disqualified for straddling a gate.
Bulgarian skier Albert Popov, who had only scored World Cup points in two previous races and started 71st, came a surprising fifth in the opening run. Popov ultimately finished ninth for his career best result. He had won a lower-ranked FIS slalom in Val Palot, Italy, on Wednesday in preparation for the Hahnenkamm slalom.
The slalom was moved from its initial slot on Sunday after organizers had brought forward Saturday's classic downhill to Friday to avoid the marquee event being affected by the weather.