Clément Noël leads by a large margin after the first run of the World Cup slalom in Gurgl. Tanguy Nef is the best Swiss in 9th place.
Noël impressively demonstrated his self-confidence in the second slalom of the winter. The Frenchman had no problems at all with the icy slope and, as with his victory a week ago in Levi, is in the lead after the first run.
While the Olympic champion only had two hundredths of a second between himself and second-placed Loïc Meillard after half a run in the far north, he put 88 hundredths and more between himself and the competition in the Ötztal. Norway's Atle Lie McGrath and Noël's compatriot Steven Amiez were the only ones to lose less than a second on the leader.
Despite not skiing flawlessly, Tanguy Nef was the best Swiss skier in 9th intermediate place. The man from Geneva thus confirmed his good form - in Levi he achieved the best result of his career with 5th place. He lost 1.45 seconds to Noël. Loïc Meillard, who was third in Levi, didn't really get going and is only in 13th place after half the stint. Daniel Yule and Luca Aerni are in 17th and 18th place. Ramon Zenhäusern is 2.75 seconds behind and has to worry about qualifying for the second run. Marc Rochat was eliminated, as in Levi.
The challenging slope claimed other prominent victims. Manuel Feller, who won the premiere in Gurgl a year ago, was eliminated for the third time in the third race of the season. The two returnees Lucas Braathen and Marcel Hirscher also failed to make it to the finish. While it was the first disappointment for the neo-Brazilian after his comeback, it was another setback for Hirscher after he failed to qualify for the second run in Levi in 46th place.
SDA
