The Snow Queen Trophy continued today on Zagreb’s Sljeme with the men’s race.
Austrian Marcel Hirscher won the World Cup slalom on Sljeme on Sunday where three Croats finished among the top 20 – Istok Rodeš finished 7th, Matej Vidović finished 15th, and Elias Kolega finished 20th, reports Gol.hr on January 6, 2019.
This was an excellent result for Croatian skiing as three of our representatives managed to qualify for the second run. Rodeš replayed Madonna di Campiglio and equalized his best score in the World Cup (1.67 seconds behind Hirscher), while Vidović (behind +2.32) and Kolega (+2.89) achieved their best career results.
Hirscher, who was second after the first race, had an excellent second run and which put enormous pressure on his inexperienced teammate, Brand Schwarz, who was leading after the first race. Schwarz failed to handle that pressure and made a mistake in the middle of the second run, forcing him to give up.
Just like two weeks ago at Madonna, Rodeš had a thrilling second run and significantly improved his placement, jumping from 18th to 7th place. Vidović finished 26th place after the first run and finished 15th in the end, achieving his best career result, which he also had in Madonna for two weeks. Elias Kolega, for the second time in his career, achieved World Cup points. His best placement before Sunday was 21st in Wengen a year ago.
Three more Croatian representatives took part in the first run. Filip Zubčić started 57th and finished 41st, Samuel Kolega (start number 63) did not finish the race, while in his premiere appearance, Leon Nikić, who started immediately behind S. Kolega, made a great mistake and with a backlog of 13.33 seconds, finished 49th.
Hirscher leads the slalom with 336 points, while Daniel Yule is in second with 246, and Schwarz is in third with 235. Rodeš is 17th with 72 points, Vidović is in 23rd with 49 and Kolega is in 41st with 11.
In the overall World Cup order, Hirscher has 756 points,Norwegian skier Henrik Kristoffersen has 421, and Austrian Max Franz has 408. Rodeš is 53rd, Vidović is 67th, Filip Zubčić is 79th, and Kolega is 114th.
The Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković attended the second run, accompanied by the husband of the Croatian President Jakov Kitarović. Around 10,000 spectators came out to watch the second run on Sljeme.
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