(Wengen) After the double of his compatriot Aleksander Aamodt Kilde in speed, Henrik Kristoffersen completed the Norwegian raid on Sunday on the prestigious Swiss stage of Wengen, winning the slalom in trying conditions.
Clenched fist, angry cry, the triple winner of the globe of the discipline (2016, 2020, 2022) let his joy burst without even waiting for the passage of the Swiss Loïc Meillard, best time of the first round, whose whole crowd awaited the triumph .
Often placed and rarely winning, the Valaisan finally fails at 20/100 e of the winner, for his fourth podium of the season in three different disciplines (slalom, super-G, giant), while Norwegian Lucas Braathen took third place at 49/100 e.
“Kristo” gets his 30e victory in the World Cup – the second highest record in activity for men behind Alexis Pinturault – and regained control of the specialty in Braathen, ten points ahead of the 22-year-old prodigy.
PHOTO DENIS BALIBOUSE, REUTERS
Henrik Kristoffersen in action
He erases in passing the cruel disappointment of last year on this same track, when he came out at the very end of the second round after knocking out the first, leaving Braathen to make the best comeback in history to win the race with the 29e first run time.
The Swiss Marco Odermatt, who does not compete in the slaloms, remains clearly at the top of the general classification with 340 points ahead of the Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who does not line up between the tight stakes either.
Christmas is reassured
In the gray and unusually mild air of the Bernese Oberland, this very selective slalom, with its incessant movements of the ground and its final wall, offered a strange spectacle and favored the first bibs.
The first run, with its extremely twisty layout on soft snow, forced the skiers to fight harder and harder as they passed, creating considerable gaps, before the thick snowflakes fell on the second.
Under these conditions, the hierarchy changed little between the two passages, even if the Olympic champion of the discipline Clément Noël and the winner of the 2021 globe, the Austrian Marco Schwarz, respectively grabbed one and three ranks to finish in 6e and 7e squares.
If he has not repeated his double (2019, 2020) on his favorite track, Noël is reassured after having made mistakes six times in his last eight races, and before continuing with the Kitzbühel slalom next Sunday .
Alexis Pinturault, 15e super-G on Friday on the nearby Lauberhorn track, ends up 13e 3 sec 35 from Kristoffersen.