Hirscher wins slalom for World Cup record ninth win at same venue
ADELBODEN, Switzerland — Once more in his stellar career, Marcel Hirscher was racing against Alpine skiing’s history book on Sunday.
The Austrian great almost inevitably won a World Cup slalom, his ninth victory at Adelboden, to set a men’s record on the 52-year circuit for most wins by one skier at a single venue.
“It is really a special place,” said Hirscher, who noted he got his first World Cup top-10 finish at Adelboden as a teenager in the January 2008 slalom.
The Chuenisbaergli slope, a snow-covered cow pasture, was an original World Cup venue in January 1967 and its race winners’ roll reads like a list of Alpine ski greats.
Hirscher’s latest Adelboden win was earned with a secondrun charge to victory for the second straight day, and through steadily falling wet snow that affected visibility.
Third-fastest in the morning, Hirscher was quickest in the afternoon to finish 0.50 seconds ahead of Clement Noel. The 21-year-old Frenchman got his first career podium finish.
Henrik Kristoffersen trailed Hirscher by 0.71 in third, one day after letting a first-run lead slip when runner-up to Hirscher in the classic giant slalom.