Clement Noel on a fine first run

Paris (AFP) - Frenchman Clement Noel won a second straight World Cup slalom at Gurgl in Austria on Sunday assuring his triumph with a blistering first run.

The 2022 Olympic champion Noel then faltered but dug deep in the second leg to top the podium just 0.43sec ahead of Sweden’s Kristoffer Jakobsen and 0.44sec faster than Norway’s Atle Lie McGrath.

For Jakobsen it was agonisingly close to his first ever World Cup win, but instead he had to be content in filling the runners-up spot for the third time in his career.

It is the second time Noel has put together back to back wins – the previous time was in Wengen and Kitzbuehel in January 2019.

“He is in a league of his own,” said McGrath of Noel.

Noel for his part was more relieved than anything else at holding onto his lead.

“I knew the competition was tough, so I’m very happy with the victory, it was a real fight,” Noel said.

“It was tough for everybody, I was confident at the start but then I made mistakes in the second run and I didn’t know if it was going to be enough to win,” he added.

There was further disappointment for ski legend two-time Olympic gold medallist Marcel Hirscher.

The 35-year-old Austrian now skiing for the Netherlands, the land of his mother, failed to finish the first leg, the same fate that befell last year’s Gurgl victor Manu Feller.

This was a 12th career World Cup win for the 27-year-old Noel, from the Val d’Isere ski resort, who won the first slalom of the campaign at Levi, Finland, in mid November.

His win in Levi had ended a World Cup drought dating back to January 2023.

All his wins have come in the slalom, so the upcoming races will not to be his taste.

American resort Beaver Creek in Colorado is the next stop, from December 6-8, featuring speed events, a downhill, a super-G and a giant slalom.