Austrian Johannes Strolz recorded the first victory of his career in the Adelboden slalom, the third slalom of the World Cup this season. He was only seventh after the first run.
Filip Zubčić placed 15th, Samuel Kolega 21st, Matej Vidović 24th, and Istok Rodeš 25th.
For the 29-year-old Strolz, this was his 64th start in the World Cup races, in which his best placement so far was 10th place in the slalom at Madonna di Campiglio two years ago.
Second place (17 hundredths of a second behind) was taken by Strolz’s compatriot Manuel Feller, who was also in second place in Saturday’s giant slalom. Third place was German Linus Strasser, who was only 14th in the first run, 29 hundredths of a second behind the winner.
Another local skier Fabio Gstrein, who shared the leading position with Feller after the first run, failed to finish the race, as did fifth-placed Frenchman Alexis Pinturault.
The first to race of the Croatian skiers was Matej Vidović, who was 25th in the first run, 1.92 seconds behind Strolz.
Samuel Kolega started well, but his time increased by a second from the second to the third pass. In the end, he was 1.73 seconds behind, enough for 21st place and points in the World Cup for the second time in his career. Filip Zubčić started immediately after his colleague and with 1.03 seconds behind Strolz, he was 15th.
Istok Rodeš was 16th from the first run, but was the weakest of the four Croatians and, in the end, was two seconds behind the leader, dropping from 16th to 25th place.
Twenty-four skiers reached the finish line within one second of the first run. The first seven were shared by only 17 hundredths of a second, so there were big changes at the top in the second run. In the end, the seventh place from the first run celebrated, while 14th place won a spot on the podium!
After three slaloms in the new season, Norwegian Sebastian Foss-Solevaag and Swede Kristoffer Jakobsen are still in the lead with 140 points each, although they did not reach the finish of the first run in Adelboden, just like Frenchman Clement Noel, who has 100 points and shares third place with Johannes Strolz. Filip Zubčić is in an excellent sixth place with 91 points.
Swiss Marco Odermatt leads with 845 points in the overall standings, ahead of Norwegian Alexander Aamodt Kilde with 469 points. Zubčić is in 11th place with 214 points.
The skiers will stay in Switzerland, where they will ride four World Cup races in Wengen from Thursday to Sunday.
In other news, Petra Vlhova celebrated in the fifth of six women’s slaloms this season. The great Slovak won first place in the Kranjska Gora slalom. In second was Wendy Holdener and Anna Swenn Larsson cam third.
Zrinka Ljutić won the first points in her career! After pushing into second in the dramatic finale of the first run in 30th place, Ljutić made a solid first career appearance in the second run and won 26th place. Leona Popović won 20th place and thus gained new points in the World Cup.
The third Croatian representative, Andrea Komšić, lost the second run by only six hundredths of a second. Nevertheless, she finished the first run in 31st place, which was not enough to lead to the second run.
With this victory, Vlhova is only 35 points behind the leader Shiffrin, and in third is still Italian Sofia Goggia with 657 points.
Source: HRT
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