Timon Haugan continues Norway dominance on slopes with World Cup slalom victory
Teammate Alexander Steen Olsen won Tuesday giant slalom on same Austrian hill
Timon Haugan won a men's World Cup night slalom on Wednesday to give the Norwegian ski team its second victory in two days in Schladming, Austria.
Haugan beat Austrians Manuel Feller and Fabio Gstrein for his second win of the season in a two-run time of one minute 48.05 seconds, a day after teammate Alexander Steen Olsen had triumphed in a giant slalom on the same hill.
"This is crazy, this is the best one so far. Schladming is just different," Haugan said.
It was the last men's slalom before the Feb. 4-16 world championships in nearby Saalbach-Hinterglemm, where Haugan won last March when the resort hosted the World Cup finals.
"With the last win and the win in Saalbach last year it's hard not to be one of the favourites," Haugan said.
WATCH | Haugan beats 2024 World Cup slalom champ Feller in Austria:
Watched by 22,500 spectators, Haugan improved from second position as first-run leader Linus Strasser, who won the annual night race last year, dropped to fourth.
The German carried a lead of more than three-tenths of a second into the final run, but lost parts of that advantage at every split time.
Strasser has not won since his back-to-back triumphs within four days in the classic slaloms of Kitzbuehel and Schladming last year.
McCormack lone Canadian to post time
Three Canadians couldn't crack the top 30 to compete in the second run.
Declan McCormack of Toronto finished 50th in the opening run in 57.87, 7.62 seconds behind Strasser.
Calgary's Erik Read and Montreal's Simon Fournier did not finish.
WATCH | Full replay coverage of Wednesday's 2nd run from Schladming:
Six days before the country hosts the worlds, Feller (1:48.25) and Gstrein (1:48.72) earned the first podium results in slalom this season for the Austrian team.
Feller won the World Cup slalom title last year but has struggled to replicate the form and consistency that earned him the globe.
For Gstrein, it was the first top-three result of his World Cup career after finishing fifth several times, most recently at the classic slalom in Adelboden a few weeks ago.
Olympic champion Clement Noel, who led the discipline standings before the race after winning four events, including in Kitzbeuhel last Sunday, was 0.71 off the lead after the first run before skiing out in his second.
Since Noel failed to score points, Henrik Kristoffersen went top of the slalom season standings again, three points clear of the Frenchman. Kristoffersen finished 1.18 seconds behind his Norwegian teammate Haugan in eighth.
The men's World Cup has one more race before the worlds: a downhill in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, on Sunday.
With files from CBC Sports
