Steven Amiez takes surprise lead of World Cup slalom with Olympic champion Clement Noel out injured

VAL d'ISERE, France (AP) — Without Olympic champion Clement Noel, French teammate Steven Amiez was the surprise leader after the opening run of a men’s World Cup slalom Sunday.

Amiez has never finished on a World Cup podium although he was a career-best fourth in Austria last month.

The 26-year-old Amiez had a flawless run down the challenging Face de Bellevarde course to build a lead of 0.32 seconds over world champion Henrik Kristoffersen.

Slalom World Cup champion Manuel Feller was third-fastest, 0.66 behind Amiez as he aims to finish his first race of the season.

Feller dominated last season — finishing fifth or better in each slalom on his way to winning the discipline title — but has failed to finish each of his previous four races, between slalom and giant slalom.

The two slalom races were won by Noel but he pulled out of the Val-d’Isère race in the morning after injuring his ankle in the giant slalom the previous day.

While the injury is not thought to be serious, Noel said he didn’t want to take any risks and hopes to return for the next slalom in Alta Badia in eight days.

Marco Schwarz made his return after almost a year out injured and was 10th after the opening run, 1.73 behind Amiez.

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The Associated Press