Anger after Gurgl slalom Kristoffersen speaks of "disgrace", Hirscher feels "out of place"
Henrik Kristoffersen harshly criticizes the organizers after his 6th place in the Gurgl Slalom. Meanwhile, Marcel Hirscher feels "a bit out of place" after his renewed failure.
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- The slalom slope in Gurgl is a challenge for the top athletes on Sunday, including the day's winner Clément Noël.
- For Henrik Kristoffersen, the conditions were too dangerous for the racers. "They really messed it up," the Norwegian criticized the organizers.
- Meanwhile, returnee Marcel Hirscher is still not getting up to speed in the second slalom of the season and is eliminated. He says: "It's not really fun."
The second slalom of the season in Gurgl, Austria, also demands everything from the top racers. "It was a real battle. The conditions were challenging," says Clément Noël after the race about the technically demanding slope.
Noël coped best with the icy slope, with the Frenchman winning the slalom ahead of Sweden's Kristoffer Jakobsen and Norway's Atle Lie McGrath. Loïc Meillard is the best Swiss racer in fifth place. Henrik Kristoffersen, who came second in Levi a week ago, had more trouble with the difficult conditions. Although he makes up a few places in the second run, he has to settle for 6th place in the end.
After the race, the ambitious Norwegian is visibly upset. In an interview with "Eurosport", he sharply criticized the race organizers: "It's a shame that they went through with these conditions. Yesterday the slope was perfect for the women's race. Of course it needs to be watered more for us, but they really messed that up."
From his point of view, the surface at some gates was clearly different to others. Sometimes too smooth, sometimes too aggressive. This is also anything but good for the skiers' health, says Kristoffersen: "It's really dangerous for the body, especially for the knees."
Hirscher: "It's not really fun"
Marcel Hirscher sees it a little differently. For him, the piste was "fantastic" and the conditions "brilliant", as the returnee told ORF. However, Hirscher, who is now competing for the Netherlands, cannot be satisfied with the race. He was eliminated in the first run. The 35-year-old already missed out on the second run in Levi.
"The next three weeks are very important because I'm a bit out of place like this, you really have to say that," says Hirscher plainly. "It's not really fun." Rarely has he been in such a situation where he was "beside himself".
Hirscher makes it clear that he still needs time to get back to his best performance. "My book of memories or training sessions, from which I draw feedback, is almost empty. I used to have a whole bible full of them," he says on "Eurosport". "That's the disadvantage of not being there for five years."
Now he has to work with his team to see how he can overcome the problems and get faster again. The next World Cup slalom is scheduled for December 15 in Val-d'Isère.