Pertl golden in Junior World Championship slalom

Like the women’s slalom, the men’s race turned out to be a tough one. Many of the athletes didn’t make it across the finish line and, when the first run was over, only 45 of 129 athletes had made it to the second run.

Norway’s Timon Haugan, the Junior World Championship giant slalom silver medalist, had a good race and was in the lead after the first run, followed by teammate Björn Brudevoll. Albert Popov of Bulgaria had the third fastest time in the first run. Among those who also made it across the line were Asa Miller, competing for the Philippines, and Alwyn Kanwar, competing for India.

Many of the athletes who could have had a chance to compete for medals skied out in the first run, including giant slalom bronze medallist Victor Guillot of France, while giant slalom winner, Loïc Meillard of Switzerland, was disqualified after missing a gate.

“It was a very special first run,” said Norwegian Björn Brudevoll. “It was a very straight course, it wasn’t difficult, but rather so easy, it was hard. You gained so much speed so conditions that would have been easy to handle became difficult.”

The 45 skiers who made it to the second run got to see the sun come out and some improved conditions. For Adrian Pert of Austria, Brudevoll and Simon Efimov of Russia, it was a particularly good final run.

Pertl had the sixth best time in the first run and was 0.88 behind leader Timon Haugan. In his second run, he managed to push into the lead and take the win.

“The first run was okay, I wasn’t nervous before the second run and I think that was good for me,” said Pertl.

The biggest threats to Pertl’s lead were Björn Brudevoll and Timon Haugan, but in the end, Pertl was 0.16 seconds faster than Björnevoll.

“It was a nice thing, winning a gold medal in the championships here,” said Pertl.

Unfortunately for Haugan, he skied out just before the final third of the course. For Björnevoll, this was his first race in the Junior Worlds.

“That certainly put some pressure on me. The goal was to win today, so it was a bit annoying to miss that by 16-hundredths, but second place is still great, especially since I struggled a bit in the second run,” said Björnevoll.

Simon Efimov was in fifth place after the first run and had a solid second run. He finished third, taking a bronze medal for Russia, 0.62 seconds behind.

The Americans were led by George Steffey in 11th place. Jett Seymore, Andrew Miller and Garrett Driller all cracked the top 30 in 22nd, 26th and 29th, respectively. River Radamus and Erik Arvidsson did not finish.

Release from Are 2017

Official Results