Kristoffersen hangs on for narrow Wengen win

By Published On: January 15th, 2017Comments Off on Kristoffersen hangs on for narrow Wengen win

WENGEN, Switzerland — Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen continued his streak of classic slalom victories on Sunday by taking the win in Wengen, Switzerland, with a combined time of 1:43.31 seconds. Austrian Marcel Hirscher was hot on Kristoffersen’s heels in second, a slim 0.15 seconds back, and Germany’s Felix Neureuther rounded out the podium in third, 0.63 seconds off of the Norwegian’s pace.

Sunday’s race took place back on the traditional slalom hill in Wengen after last year’s had to be held on the bottom of the downhill track due to a lack of snow. Cloud cover was in-and-out throughout the day, but hard snow and fast racing conditions provided for a lively atmosphere at the finish. Kristoffersen set the pace in the morning as Hirscher and Neureuther sat in fourth and thirteenth place, respectively, after the tightly-packed first run.

It was tight racing once again in the second run as Neureuther took to the course and skied himself in to a comfortable leading margin at the finish after a particularly strong middle and bottom section separated him from the rest of the field. As racer after racer fell to the German’s pace, Hirscher matched Neureuther turn-for-turn and slid into the lead and awaited Kristoffersen’s challenge.

It looked to finally be Hirscher’s day as Kristoffersen bled time at each interval, even finding himself behind at the last split before eking ahead in the final few gates for the narrow win.

Sunday’s win puts Kristoffersen equal with the legendary Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg with 13 slalom wins a piece before turning 23 years old. Only Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark has won more slaloms before his 23rd birthday with 20.

“At the moment, I’m skiing pretty good,” Kristoffersen admitted after the race. “I’m really happy to come away with a win here today with how the course setting was, so it was a good day for sure. Today was a little bit more difficult with the course being so fast and straight; I like it a little bit more when it’s turnier and a bit more difficult.”

Although missing out on another victory by mere hundredths of a second does sting, Hirscher was nonetheless content to walk away from Wengen with another 80 points to add to his lead in the overall standings.

WENGEN,SWITZERLAND,15.JAN.17 - ALPINE SKIING - FIS World Cup, slalom, men, award ceremony. Image shows Marcel Hirscher (AUT) and Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR). Photo: GEPA pictures/ Thomas Bachun“It is definitely a day where I can say I’m happy with eighty more points in the books,” he explained. “I’m happy with the result and the skiing was not too bad, two solid runs, especially in the second run. It is maybe a half meter of difference with the time, and there is always this kind of battle between Henrik and the rest of the world and for sure, we are searching and fighting to beat Henrik because he is definitely the fastest man on earth on slalom skis.”

Neureuther used his frustration over a disappointing first run as motivation to charge his way to another World Cup podium, his third this season.

“I had two did not finishes at the end of 2016, so I wasn’t that confident in the new year, so it was very important for me to be on the podium here again. I have three good results now in the new year, and Kitzbuehel and Schladming are next, so I really look forward to that,” said Neureuther. “If I ski in the first run like I did in the second run, then it’s possible (to catch Kristoffersen). I wasn’t happy with my first run, I skied very passive. When you are racing against Henrik or Marcel, you can’t do any mistakes because you have no chance.”

For the Americans, independent skier Robby Kelley managed to score his career first World Cup slalom points in 25th, but was hungry to improve on his performance heading into the remainder of the slalom season.

“I was really happy with how I skied first run.” Kelley explained. “I was fourth on the pitch in the first run, so I was trying to maybe even get a little more going into the pitch second run and went a little too straight into it. It’s a bummer; I didn’t have a great run, but I’m happy to get some points.”

Unfortunately, the remainder of the American contingent did not fare so well as David Chodounsky straddled a gate in the second run after a strong first run. Mark Engel and Hig Roberts did not qualify for a second run, and Michael Ankeny and AJ Ginnis did not finish their first runs. Kelley is the fifth American male to score World Cup slalom points this season, indicating that the American squad has some impressive depth going forward.

Also noteworthy was the performance of Austria’s Christian Hirschbuehl, who went from bib 46 to finish just off the podium in fourth, 0.75 seconds back. Norwegian and former DU Pioneer Leif Kristian Haugen managed to lay down the second fastest first run from bib 30, but straddled a gate midway through his second run and did not finish.

The men now head to Kitzbuehel, Austria, for Hahnenkamm week with downhill, super-G and slalom racing Jan. 20-22.

Fans can stay up to date on World Cup by  downloading the U.S. Ski Team – Ski Racing app for iOS and Android.


Top 10

  1. Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR) – Rossignol/Rossignol/Look
  2. Marcel Hirscher (AUT) – Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
  3. Felix Neureuther (GER) – Nordica/Nordica/Marker
  4. Christian Hirschbuehl (AUT) – Rossignol/Rossignol/Look
  5. Julien Lizeroux (FRA) – Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
  6. Mattias Hargin (SWE) – Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
  7. Alexander Khoroshilov (RUS) – Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
  8. Manfred Moelgg (ITA) – Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
  9. Robin Buffet (FRA) – Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
  10. Stefan Luitz (GER) – Rossignol/Rossignol/Look

Official Results

Rank Bib FIS Code Name Year Nation Run 1 Run 2 Total Time Diff. FIS Points WC Points
 1  4  422304 KRISTOFFERSEN Henrik 1994 NOR  52.51  50.80  1:43.31  0.00  100.00
 2  3  53831 HIRSCHER Marcel 1989 AUT  53.07  50.39  1:43.46  +0.15  1.05  80.00
 3  7  201702 NEUREUTHER Felix 1984 GER  53.48  50.46  1:43.94  +0.63  4.39  60.00
 4  46  53889 HIRSCHBUEHL Christian 1990 AUT  53.41  50.65  1:44.06  +0.75  5.23  50.00
 5  13  191459 LIZEROUX Julien 1979 FRA  53.66  50.56  1:44.22  +0.91  6.34  45.00
 6  9  501111 HARGIN Mattias 1985 SWE  53.09  51.21  1:44.30  +0.99  6.90  40.00
 7  2  480736 KHOROSHILOV Alexander 1984 RUS  52.95  51.54  1:44.49  +1.18  8.22  36.00
 8  1  292491 MOELGG Manfred 1982 ITA  53.34  51.18  1:44.52  +1.21  8.43  32.00
 9  31  194262 BUFFET Robin 1991 FRA  53.44  51.16  1:44.60  +1.29  8.99  29.00
 10  57  202437 LUITZ Stefan 1992 GER  53.66  50.95  1:44.61  +1.30  9.06  26.00
 11  12  194364 PINTURAULT Alexis 1991 FRA  53.50  51.13  1:44.63  +1.32  9.20  24.00
 12  10  220689 RYDING Dave 1986 GBR  53.29  51.41  1:44.70  +1.39  9.69  22.00
 13  6  293797 GROSS Stefano 1986 ITA  53.11  51.71  1:44.82  +1.51  10.52  20.00
 14  20  192665 GRANGE Jean-Baptiste 1984 FRA  53.98  51.20  1:45.18  +1.87  13.03  18.00
 15  45  561322 HADALIN Stefan 1995 SLO  54.12  51.20  1:45.32  +2.01  14.01  16.00
 16  26  511902 ZENHAEUSERN Ramon 1992 SUI  54.09  51.34  1:45.43  +2.12  14.77  15.00
 17  23  193967 MUFFAT-JEANDET Victor 1989 FRA  54.06  51.39  1:45.45  +2.14  14.91  14.00
 18  24  293098 RAZZOLI Giuliano 1984 ITA  54.06  51.41  1:45.47  +2.16  15.05  13.00
 19  28  202451 STRASSER Linus 1992 GER  53.81  51.74  1:45.55  +2.24  15.61  12.00
 20  40  6291574 SALA Tommaso 1995 ITA  54.26  51.34  1:45.60  +2.29  15.96  11.00
 21  16  51395 DIGRUBER Marc 1988 AUT  54.18  51.58  1:45.76  +2.45  17.07  10.00
 22  14  511996 YULE Daniel 1993 SUI  54.13  51.73  1:45.86  +2.55  17.77  9.00
 23  53  502015 JAKOBSEN Kristoffer 1994 SWE  53.96  52.06  1:46.02  +2.71  18.89  8.00
 24  49  201891 SCHMID Philipp 1986 GER  53.96  52.10  1:46.06  +2.75  19.17  7.00
 25  35  930160 KELLEY Robby 1990 USA  53.93  52.73  1:46.66  +3.35  23.35  6.00
Disqualified 1st run
 19  54063 FELLER Manuel 1992 AUT
Did not qualify for 2nd run
 66  60236 VAN DEN BROECKE Dries 1995 BEL
 65  150743 BERNDT Ondrej 1988 CZE
 62  501351 JOHANSSON Emil 1988 SWE
 61  934566 ROBERTS Hig 1991 USA
 59  511896 MURISIER Justin 1992 SUI
 58  512063 BONVIN Anthony 1994 SUI
 52  202520 HOLZMANN Sebastian 1993 GER
 50  6290183 RONCI Giordano 1992 ITA
 43  511899 ROCHAT Marc 1992 SUI
 41  934523 ENGEL Mark 1991 USA
 39  511908 SCHMIDIGER Reto 1992 SUI
 38  291318 TONETTI Riccardo 1989 ITA
 37  103865 PHILP Trevor 1992 CAN
 36  320266 JUNG Dong-hyun 1988 KOR
 33  700830 ZAMPA Adam 1990 SVK
 29  501116 LAHDENPERAE Anton 1985 SWE
 27  201896 STEHLE Dominik 1986 GER
 22  421860 NORDBOTTEN Jonathan 1989 NOR
 18  422082 FOSS-SOLEVAAG Sebastian 1991 NOR
 11  54170 MATT Michael 1993 AUT
 8  54320 SCHWARZ Marco 1995 AUT
Did not finish 2nd run
 30  421669 HAUGEN Leif Kristian 1987 NOR
 25  301709 YUASA Naoki 1983 JPN
 17  534508 CHODOUNSKY David 1984 USA
 15  290732 THALER Patrick 1978 ITA
 5  501017 MYHRER Andre 1983 SWE
Did not finish 1st run
 67  54106 BREITFUSS KAMMERLANDER Simon 1992 BOL
 64  700879 ZAMPA Andreas 1993 SVK
 63  430633 JASICZEK Michal 1994 POL
 60  304242 NARITA Hideyuki 1993 JPN
 56  194207 THEOLIER Steven 1990 NED
 55  6531063 GINNIS AJ 1994 USA
 54  54245 HETTEGGER Thomas 1994 AUT
 51  934502 ANKENY Michael 1991 USA
 48  103676 BROWN Phil 1991 CAN
 47  6291631 LIBERATORE Federico 1995 ITA
 44  512138 SIMONET Sandro 1995 SUI
 42  380361 RODES Istok 1996 CRO
 34  150644 KRYZL Krystof 1986 CZE
 32  511127 GINI Marc 1984 SUI
 21  511983 AERNI Luca 1993 SUI

 

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About the Author: Sean Higgins

A Lake Tahoe native and University of Vermont graduate, Higgins was a member of the Catamounts' 2012 NCAA title winning squad and earned first team All-American honors in 2013. Prior to coming to Ski Racing Media, he coached U14s for the Squaw Valley Ski Team.