Alpine skiing: Clément Noël falls in the Kitzbühel slalom, Steven Amiez sixth

Disappointment for Clément Noël. The French skier fell on the Kiztbühel slalom this Sunday afternoon. Author of an inside fault from the 5th pole, the Vosges native missed his second round while he was in position to aim for the win. At the end of a hotly contested session, it was finally the German Linus Strasser who won his first victory of the season in the slalom, finishing 14 hundredths ahead of Kristoffer Jakobsen.

However, earlier in the morning, the best French slalom skier had had a good first run, finishing 5th, 42 hundredths behind Jakobsen despite a scare in the middle of the course. “I made a big mistake in the middle,” he admitted afterwards. I wasted a lot of time but it could have been a lot worse. I could have been outside, I didn’t go far. »

Still no victory this season

The Frenchman “in the match” after this first effort had adapted particularly well to the snow, “very very ice” according to him, very hard. “At first I was a little tense, and in the end I came out well,” he said. I’m comfortable on the snow so that’s a good sign. »

It has not happened. Missing out in Adelboden (Switzerland) at the beginning of January, where he was eliminated in the first round, the native of Remireront is still running behind his first success of the season. Second at Madonna on December 22, the slalomer remained in a frustrating fourth place near Wengen last week. Second in the slalom World Cup rankings in 2019, 2020 and 2021, Noël now has little chance of completing his quest this year. The Vosges occupies 7th folding seat, 243 points behind Austrian leader Manuel Feller.

But the French contingent did not leave Kitzbühel fanny, the day after Cyprien Sarrazin’s historic double in the downhill. Indeed, Steven Amiez obtained his best result in the World Cup, finishing 6th (+1′51″). The 25-year-old skier had an excellent second run to confirm his current good run.