Kristoffersen unseats Hirscher

Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway finally won his first World Cup slalom of the season at Kitzbuehel, Austria, 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. It was his first victory since winning at Schladming, another Austrian resort, a year ago.

Continuing their slalom rivalry from past seasons into next month’s Pyeongchang Olympics, Kristoffersen was runnerup to Hirscher in five races this season, including three giant slaloms. In other news: • Lara Gut won the final World Cup super-G at Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy, before next month’s Olympics, 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 at Cortina with 12 wins, was slowed by a strong gust of wind and finished sixth, 0.37 back.