Clément Noël won the famous slalom held in Madonna di Campiglio – the capital of the Brenta Dolomites in northern Italy. Eduard Hallberg surprisingly led after the first run, but did not transform this lead into a victory, as he lost to the 2022 Olympic champion by 0.12 seconds.

by Maciej Jackiewicz

First run

The first run began at 18:00 local time and it was opened by the slalom World Cup leader Timon Haugan, who clocked in at 50.61 seconds. His compatriot Atle Lie McGrath came close to beating him, but his time turned out to be 0.03 seconds slower. Another of the Norwegian, however, was able to beat Haugan’s time, as on the line Henrik Kristoffersen was 0.03 seconds faster than his younger teammate. This Norwegian party at the top did not last long, as the Olympic champion from Beijing Clément Noël became the fastest man on the Canalone Miramonti course, beating Kristoffersen’s time by 0.06 seconds.

When it seemed that Noël would stay at the top, Tanguy Nef of Switzerland outpaced the Frenchman by 0.07 seconds, before even bigger surprise arose, with Eduard Hallberg of Finland, who started with Bib 21, went 0.16 seconds faster than Nef, ending the first run in the lead. The 22-year-old Hallberg made headlines this year after finishing third in his home slalom in Levi, becoming the first Finnish male to finish on the World Cup podium since 2007 and the Alta Badia podium of Kalle Palander.

The course turned out to be very tricky, even for the best slalom skiers in the world. The only rider from the first starting group to not finish was Fabio Gstrein, but other notable skiers than did not complete the race were Dominik Raschner, Oscar Andreas Sandvik and the home hero Alex Vinatzer. The last two were especially disappointing, as both of them were quick enough in the first part of the run to fight for the highest places. All in all, 22 out of 70 competitors that started the night slalom did not finish, which is a whopping 31% rate.

Despite it being a very difficult run, some of the higher-bib guys made their way into the second run. The highest ones that qualified from the first run were Joaquim Salarich Baucells with Bib 52 and Antoine Azzolin with Bib 53. For the latter, it was the second time he qualified for the second run in the World Cup, after making his way through to the competition finale a year ago also in Madonna di Campiglio, though he did not finish it that time.

Second run

The second run, which began at 21:00 local time, turned out to be as difficult for the skiers as the first one. The first three skiers that went down the course did not finish their runs. Only the fourth competitor, Antoine Azzolin, was able to complete the run and go into the lead. He was beaten by the Spaniard Joaquim Salarich Baucells, who was faster than the Frenchman by 0.44 seconds. Two further riders did not finish, this being Sam Maes and Daniel Yule. After a disappointing first run, where he finished 18th, Loïc Meillard tried as much as he could to improve on his position in the second run, and with that he overtook the leading Spaniard by 0.23 seconds.

This lead was short-lived, as Paco Rassat, 16th after the first run, was 0.37 seconds faster than the Swiss skier. As it turned out, Rassat would stay in the lead for a very long time. Some of the riders came very close to beating the Frenchman, including the likes of Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, Armand Marchant or the surprisingly good Eirik Hystad Solberg. The gap covering the top five before the runs of first run’s top 5 was just 0.13 seconds, and after fifth Timon Haugan completed his run to be classified fourth at the time, this gap went down to 0.11 seconds.

All changed after Clément Noël finished the course to beat his teammate by 0.37 seconds, making a French 1-2 at the top. Tanguy Nef did not withstand the pressure and finished his run in ninth and with that, there was only one man left at the top of the course – Eduard Hallberg. His run was very good, and he came close to beating Noël, but a slight mistake at the end cost him precious time. In the end, he finished the slalom in second, 0.12 seconds behind the 28-year-old from France.

Results

What’s next?

There will not be a long break for the men’s slalom World Cup, as alongside giant slalom competitions, the most technical discipline of alpine skiing will come back on 10–11 January on the Chuenisbärgli course in Adelboden, Switzerland. The women will also compete this weekend, but they will take part in the speed disciplines on the Kälberloch course in Zauchensee, Austria.

Header photo credit: World Cup Madonna di Campiglio