Clément Noël wins a World Cup slalom at foggy Adelboden after Manuel Feller fails to finish

ADELBODEN, Switzerland (AP) — Clément Noël skied through the fog to win a World Cup slalom race Saturday and deny Brazil a first-ever victory by just 0.02 seconds.

The 2022 Olympic champion rose from third place in the first run to get his third win this season and beat Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, the Norway-born racer who now represents his mother’s home nation Brazil.

Henrik Kristoffersen, Braathen’s former teammate, placed third, trailing Noël by 0.14, and leads the slalom standings from his French rival.

First-run leader Manuel Feller had already lost his time advantage before skiing out on the steep final slope. The Austrian star has now failed to finish four slalom races this season in defense of his World Cup title.

Pinheiro Braathen matched Brazil’s best result in World Cup skiing after being runner-up last month in a giant slalom at Beaver Creek, Colorado.

Conditions were difficult all day on the Chuenisbaergli hill. Steady snowfall in the morning slowed the later starters, and racers could barely be seen in thick fog for parts of the second run in the afternoon.

The slalom typically scheduled on Sunday was moved forward one day because the weather and visibility risked forcing a giant slalom to be canceled.

The classic Adelboden giant slalom — a permanent fixture on the men’s World Cup circuit since the first week of racing in January 1967 — was pushed back to Sunday.

Marco Odermatt, who leads the World Cup overall and giant slalom standings but skips slalom, will be favored Sunday to win a fourth straight time in a race that is a signature sports event for his home country Switzerland.

Only one Swiss racer has won the Adelboden slalom since 2007 and Daniel Yule, the 2020 champion, was 12th Saturday, almost two seconds back. The best home racer was eighth-placed Tanguy Nef.

World Cup slalom standings leader Loïc Meillard, the home crowd favorite, failed to finish the first run by straddling a gate midway down.

The runner-up at Adelboden for the past two seasons, Atle Lie McGrath of Norway, also failed to finish in the morning when poised to set the fastest time.

Albert Popov, the winner Wednesday at Madonna di Campiglio giving Bulgaria its first men’s victory in 45 years, could not repeat that form and placed 16th, trailing 2.31 behind Noël.

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

The Associated Press