Olympic Champion Noel Leads Night Slalom In Italy After First Run

MADONNA DI CAMPIGLIO, Italy: Clement Noel led a men’s World Cup night slalom after the first run on Friday as the Frenchman aimed for only his second victory since winning Olympic gold in February 2022.

Noel put down a consistent run on the Canalone Miramonti course without clocking the fastest time in any of the four sections. He built a lead of 0.37 seconds over Swiss skier Loic Meillard and Norway’s Timon Haugan, who shared second position.

Albert Popov was the fastest starter and still led Noel until the Bulgarian skier lost nearly a half-second in the final section, leaving him in fourth place and with 0.42 to make up in the final run later Friday.

“The snow is really easy, the course setting was really easy, so it’s never easy to be fast,” Noel said. “I tried to push hard, I tried to ski calm.”

Noel’s 10th and last career victory was 11 months ago, also in a floodlit event – the annual night race in Schladming, Austria.

The Frenchman started this season 12th in the only previous slalom. That race in Gurgl, Austria, ended with a sweep of the podium by the home team; Manuel Feller won ahead of Marco Schwarz and Michael Matt.

After the opening run on Friday, Schwarz was the leading Austrian in sixth, trailing Noel by 0.50 seconds. Feller was 0.68 off the lead.

Schwarz will go top of the overall standings if he wins the race, overtaking two-time defending overall champion Marco Odermatt. The Swiss skier does not compete in slaloms.

Slalom world champion Henrik Kristoffersen was 0.88 off the pace in 12th.

The race is the sixth in eight men’s World Cups in Italy within 16 days.

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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/skiing

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – Associated Press)