Switzerland’s Meillard seizes Aspen World Cup slalom

Switzerland’s Loic Meillard snatched victory in the Alpine World Cup slalom at Aspen, Colorado, on Sunday as first-leg leader Clement Noel crashed out on the second run.

Meillard topped the podium after two giant slalom runner-up finishes behind his invincible Swiss teammate Marco Odermatt, finishing with a total time of 1min 42.73sec.

He was .89sec ahead of Germany’s Linus Strasser with Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen third, 1.17sec adrift.

The race was delayed as organizers cleared the course of 30 centimeters of snow that had fallen overnight, and snow fell again late in the first run and throughout the second.

Meillard notched the third World Cup victory of his career, following the parallel giant slalom in Chamonix in February 2020 and the giant slalom in Schladming in January 2023.

For 2020 Olympic slalom gold medallist Noel, however, it marked the third time this season he was unable to parlay a first-leg lead into a victory, having settled for second in Madonna di Campliglio and third in Chamonix.

Nearly three-tenths ahead of Meillard after the first run, he skied off the course just 20 seconds into the second to miss out on a fifth podium of the year.

Austria’s Manuel Feller, who finished fifth, remained atop the slalom standings. He has a 169-point lead over Strasser with two races remaining.

Odermatt, who has already clinched the overall and giant slalom World Cup titles, is also closing in on the downhill and super-g crystal globes as the men’s circuit heads back to Europe.

Kranjska Gora hosts a men’s slalom and giant slalom March 9-10.

bb/sev

AFP

(NAMPA / AFP)