Alpine skiing: Clément Noël wins the Val d’Isère slalom – archyde

The competitions in France are successful for Clément Noël. The 24-year-old Vosges skier, who won last season in the Chamonix slalom (in January), confirmed on Sunday that he is indeed one of the favorites in this specialty by dominating, at Val d ‘ Isère, the first slalom of the World Cup season.

Uncompromising, the Frenchman set the best times over the two rounds of the race. He beat the Swede Kristoffer Jakobsen by 1 second 40 and the Croatian Filip Zubcic by 1 second 85. He thus signs his ninth victory on the world circuit.

THE CHRISTMAS RECITAL! Clément Noël crushed the competition in the slalom of Val d’Isère, the French won the p… https://t.co/fmOW7zB4Ed

– lachainelequipe (@la chain L’Équipe)

Clément Noël had declared before the race that“There is always a little more apprehension for the first one” slalom of the season, “Because we don’t know where we are”. It was quickly fixed. “I did not know the times of my competitors”, declared the winner after the finish. “I was just solid”.

During the first round, despite a fault at the end of the course, Noël clocked the best time, ahead of the Italian Alex Vinatzer (at 0”12) and the Norwegian world champion Sebastian Foss-Solevaag (at 0”17 ).

“It’s pretty good, I knew my first run was correct until my little mistake at the end. I’m happy to start with a race like that, it was not easy to get started on this track ”, he commented.

We can’t wait to hear the truth of the race. For the past three seasons, Clément Noël has finished second in the overall slalom standings.

Pinturault eliminated

For his part, Alexis Pinturault missed his first slalom of the season: not in the rhythm, he made a major error at the end of the layout. He finished at 2”90 before Christmas, insufficient time to clinch a place in the top 30 and qualify for the second round, at 1 p.m. On Saturday, the overall winner of the World Cup in 2021 had to be content with the second place in the giant slalom, behind the Swiss Marco Odermatt, absolute leader during this season.

“I made a very poor choice of equipment, which turned into difficulty in balancing on my skis and cost me this fault at the end of the race”, regretted the French. “I am inevitably disappointed, I had the means to do better, I shouldn’t stay focused on it, it should help me not to make this kind of mistake anymore”, he added.

Holding the title of the small globe of the specialty, the Austrian Marco Schwarz was also eliminated. About half an hour after the end of the round, Victor Muffat-Jeandet was disqualified for having straddled when he had made the 6^etime.

The World with AFP

Pinturault eliminated

1 thought on “Alpine skiing: Clément Noël wins the Val d’Isère slalom – archyde”