Croatian skier Filip Zubčić was excellent in the World Cup in Val d’Isere on Sunday and achieved the best slalom result of his career in that discipline.
After placing 6th in the first run, the Croatian skier further improved his ranking at the French winter resort, finishing on the podium in third place. He was especially impeccable in the lower part of the track and entered the finish line as the first-place finisher.
Although he was unlucky on Saturday, a day later, Zubčić was brilliant in the first slalom of the season. Zubčić’s best slalom ranking in the World Cup before this was fifth place.
“This is crazy. This is something I secretly hoped could happen this year, and here it is – now in the first race. I knew that I had progressed in slalom and that I could achieve the best results and I proved that today on one of the most difficult slalom tracks,” said Zubčić after placing third in Val d’Isere.
Zubčić achieved this result after giving up on the giant slalom yesterday.
“The first run was great yesterday; the three of us separated, and I stumbled in the second run. I knew I had to take a risk from the start, I failed, but I stayed strong in my head. It didn’t depress me. I maintained a positive mentality, I rested and I knew that today was a new chance and race,” said Zubčić.
Finally, the best Croatian skier reached the podium in slalom.
“Last year I always had a good first run, would screw up in the second, and would go into the third, fourth, fifth. But I wanted that to change. Today I was sixth in the first run, but I said to myself, yes, if I come in first, it could be the podium and in the end, it happened. Two people stumbled behind me, it’s slalom, sometimes it’s roulette,” Zubčić concluded.
Matej Vidović also won slalom points and finished 19th in Val d’Isere.
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