By Le Figaro with AFP
Published 49 minutes ago, Updated now
Linus Strasser faces his success alongside Timon Haugan and Clément Noel LEONHARD FOEGER / REUTERS
Three days after his success between the stakes in Kitzbühel, the German skier doubled the stakes on Wednesday evening by winning the night slalom in Austria.
The German Linus Strasser, already winner on Sunday of the Kitzbühel slalom, achieved a formidable double by winning the Schladming slalom on Wednesday, ahead of the Norwegian Timon Haugan. French Olympic champion Clément Noël, winner in Schladming last year, took third place to claim his second podium of the winter.
In a charged atmosphere despite the wind and rain, Strasser, 31, scored his fifth World Cup success and his second in three days. Already in the lead after the first round, he resisted in the second round to finish ahead of the Norwegian Timon Haugan (+0”28) and Clément Noël (+1”02). This is the second time that the German has won in this race which he had already won in 2022. At the finish, he was cheered by tens of thousands of wild Austrian spectators after a big week of festivities between the Kitzbühel races (two descents, a slalom) last week and those of Schladming with the giant on Tuesday evening and the slalom on Wednesday evening.
Feller still in the lead
Disappointed after his exit from the track on Sunday in Kitzbühel, Clément Noël managed to bounce back on Wednesday to take third place. The Vosges, who has not won in the World Cup for exactly a year and the Schladming slalom in January 2023, has had a string of irregular results since the start of winter, between good performances (2nd to Madonna, 4th to Wengen and 3rd in Schladming) and track exits like in Adelboden or Kitzbühel. “It wasn’t easy for me after Kitzbühel», Confided Clément Noël after his race. “I didn’t want to make the same mistake (…) so I’m happy to have gotten through it, to get to the bottom and make a podium. It’s good for my confidence. I have to try to stop worrying about the results and do my skiing».
After six slaloms since the start of winter, the Austrian Manuel Feller, fifth on Sunday in front of his home crowd, remains at the top of the specialty ranking (440 points) thanks to his three victories between the stakes this season. Linus Strasser is second (308 points). In the general ranking, Swiss ski genius Marco Odermatt remains well in the lead with 1,256 points. The Alpine Skiing World Cup continues on Saturday and Sunday for speed event specialists, with two super-Gs on the program in Garmisch, Germany.
