Clement Noel earns first career World Cup win
Jan 20, 2019·Alpine Skiing
France’s Clement Noel is having a great start to 2019. After earning his first career podium, taking second place in last week’s Adelboden slalom, he followed up with his first career victory today in the Wengen slalom, relegating the Austrian duo of Manuel Feller and Marcel Hirscher to the lower steps on the podium.
The 21 year-old Frenchman led the field after the first run 0.47 ahead of Feller. Hirscher had an uncharacteristic showing in the first run, ending nearly a second off the winning pace.
But when the second run arrived, the Austrians were back on their game, and looked poised to take the nation’s seventh straight men’s World Cup victory. Hirscher was back in top form, skiing the fastest second run of all competitors and taking over the lead. But two racers later Feller eked out his teammate by a mere 0.02 seconds to take the lead.
Only the young sensation Noel remained at the top of the hill and his lead shrunk slowly at each interval, but when he crossed the finish line, he could ultimately celebrate his first Audi FIS World Cup victory by a slim 0.08 margin.
Noel’s win left Feller still looking for his first career World Cup victory. It also halted the Austrian team’s 2019 winning streak at six and ended Hirscher’s current streak of three consecutive victories.
Results are available here: Wengen SL
Quotes from the Top 3 are available here: Soundcloud
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