Kristoffersen wins slalom, ends Hirscher’s win streak

Back in form, Gut captures Cortina super-G

KITZBUEHEL, Austria, Jan 21, (AP): Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway finally won his first World Cup slalom of the season Sunday, ending Marcel Hirscher’s five-race winning streak.

Carrying a 1.05-second lead over his Austrian rival from the opening run, Kristoffersen lost only 0.08 of his advantage in a wild second run in dense snowfall to claim his first victory of the season and 16th overall.

He narrowly avoided skiing out twice, and after crossing the finish he punched his chest with his right fist and fell on his back to celebrate the victory. It was his first since triumphing at another Austrian resort, Schladming, a year ago.

“It’s really cool,” Kristoffersen said. “The first run was really good. In the second run I was on the limit. I made some mistakes here and there but I just tried to keep going.”

Kristoffersen set a World Cup record earlier this season by getting podiums in the first six slaloms without winning a race.

Continuing their slalom rivalry from past seasons into next month’s Pyeongchang Olympics, Kristoffersen was runner-up to Hirscher in five races this season, including three giant slaloms. Ending that series at a race in Austria made it special, said the Norwegian, who resides in Salzburg.

“We have no slalom races in Norway so this feels like a home race for me,” said Kristoffersen, who also won in Kitzbuehel two years ago. “Today was definitely a great feeling.”

Not satisfied with his opening leg, Hirscher called his second run “acceptable.”

“In training the last few days I felt that it would not go as smooth as in recent weeks,” the Austrian said. “This was the maximum I could get out of this race. I am happy with 80 points. Henrik was a class better, he deserved the win today.”

Daniel Yule of Switzerland was 1.35 behind in third for his first career podium, while the rest of the field finished more than 2.2 seconds off the lead.

Britain’s Dave Ryding, who finished runner-up to Hirscher last year for his career best result, trailed by 2.89 seconds in 25th after the opening run but posted the fastest time in the final leg to improve to ninth place.

Hirscher’s Austrian teammate Michael Matt, who was second after the opening run, passed a gate at the wrong side and did not finish. Eight of the 30 racers who qualified for the second leg failed to complete their final run.

Earlier, many starters struggled in tough first-run conditions after overnight snowfall. On a difficult course set by his coach Jani Hladnik, Russia’s Alexander Khoroshilov straddled a gate and failed in his bid to improve his slalom ranking ahead of the Olympics.

Hirscher needed a win to match Hermann Maier’s Austrian record of 54 men’s World Cup victories. Only Swedish standout Ingemar Stenmark (86) won more races.

Still leading the standings by 154 points over Kristoffersen, Hirscher remained on course for an unprecedented seventh overall title. Their slalom duel will continue at a night race in Schlada ming on Tuesday.

In Cortina D’ampezzo, Italy, Lara Gut won the final World Cup super-G before next month’s Olympics on Sunday, signaling a return to form after knee surgery last season. It was the Swiss skier’s first victory since winning the downhill in Cortina almost a year ago.

In a race on a shortened course that was shaped by strong winds, overcast conditions and overnight snowfall, Gut clocked 1 minute, 14.78 seconds for a 0.14-second advantage over Johanna Schnarf of Italy.

Nicole Schmidhofer of Austria finished third, 0.27 behind. Lindsey Vonn, the record holder in Cortina with 12 wins, was slowed by a strong gust of wind and finished sixth, 0.37 back.

“An unlucky day ... never had such

Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway poses on the podium after winning the men’s slalom event at the FIS Alpine World Cup in Kitzbuehel,

Austria on Jan 21. (AFP)

strong wind gust in a race ever in my life. Oh well, can’t change it. I’ll save the good luck for February I guess,” Vonn tweeted, looking ahead to the Pyeongchang Games, which open Feb 9. Vonn started sixth and Gut was next. Gut trailed Schnarf at all three checkpoints but then established her lead through the final gates.

“I didn’t have any wind, so I was fast,” Gut said.

Overall World Cup leader Mikaela Shiffrin missed a gate midway through her run and Italian favorite Sofia Goggia hit a gate and also did not finish.

Shiffrin still holds a huge 876-point lead over Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein in the overall standings. Gut reclaimed the lead in the super-G ranks, 18 points ahead of Weirather. Due to increasing wind, the race was called off after 44 of 58 skiers had started.

It was the 24th victory of Gut’s World Cup career.

Gut ruptured her left ACL last February in a crash during slalom warmups for the combined medal event of her home world championships in St. Moritz. The injury ensured she lost her overall World Cup title to American rival Mikaela Shiffrin.

Schnarf recorded her only other podium result eight years ago.

It was Schmidhofer’s fourth career podium — three of which have come in Cortina. She could have won if not for an error midway through her run.

“It’s a really good slope for me,” Schmidhofer said, adding that the course set by her coach, Roland Assinger, “was really tricky.” bar just a little too high for her training partner and three years her senior Medvedeva.

The little girl in red seduced the judges and the Megasport Palace crowd who showed their appreciation by throwing bundles of bouquets and bears onto the rink after her four minutes of magic.

Zagitova is unusual in that she backloads her jumps to the second half of her routine, and so it was fully two minutes before her blades leapt off the ice for her opening triple lutz-triple loop combination. She followed that with a double axel and triple toeloop with a dazzling array of jumps following.

A few minutes later Medvedeva had her hands on her hips as if to say job well done after her routine to Anna Karenina.

But the 18-year-old Muscovite had her eyes closed as her result came through with her 154.79 compared to Zagitova’s 157.97 falling short of her free skating personal best.

Ladies competition gold medallist Alina Zagitova of Russia poses with her medal during the ceremony at the ISU European Figure Skating Championships in Moscow on Jan

20. (AFP)

This file photo taken on Dec 7, 2017 shows schoolchildren posing beside a pair of official Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games mascots, one of three shortlisted

pairs to be unveiled, at Kakezuka elementary school in Tokyo. (AFP)