2024-01-24 21:45:13
Kitzbühel winner Linus Straßer also won the night race in Schladming and thus achieved the Austrian double. The German relegated the Norwegian Timon Haugan to second place by 28 hundredths. Clement Noel, who was third, was already more than a second behind. Manuel Feller was eighth at halftime and was also very fast, but he missed out on a podium place due to a few mistakes and ended up fifth. Fabio Gstrein improved from 26th place to tenth thanks to his best running time.
The German Linus Straßer had struggled in the World Cup for many years, but now he is the man of the hour: just three days following his victory on the Kitzbühel Ganslernhang, he also won the Schladming night slalom – becoming only the eighth driver to win in both slaloms classics and was the first German to do so. “It’s unbelievable, but it’s working quite easily at the moment. Skiing is such a mental challenge, but at the moment I’m managing to just concentrate on myself and my next turn,” said the 31-year-old, who lives in Kirchberg near Kitzbühel. He had already won in Schladming in 2021. The fact that he repeated the success is no coincidence for him. “I like the race and the enthusiasm of the Austrian fans.”
Manuel Feller: “If I might swap”
Manuel Feller was also happy regarding the enthusiasm of the fans, but the Tyrolean mightn’t get past fifth place. An edge setting that was a little too sharp blocked him in the first run, and in the second run he took out the crowbar, which didn’t work either. Nevertheless, in the end he moved up from eighth place to fifth place. “That’s called damage limitation, because if I had made that mistake I might have stood outside. So I ended up in fifth place, which isn’t so bad.” The fact that the series winner in the slalom missed the podium in Kitzbühel and Schladming, of all places, annoyed him. “If I might swap, I would swap second place in the giant slalom on Tuesday for the slalom,” said Feller, who can still feel like the winner of the slalom month of January. After all, he is ahead in the slalom rankings with over 130 points.
Gstrein and Strolz were the fastest in the final
A strong sign of life was sent by two Austrians who haven’t run at all this year: Fabio Gstrein (26th) and Johanns Strolz (28th) only qualified for the final run with difficulty, where they achieved the best running time ( Gstrein) and second place made people sit up and take notice. “It finally went as well as it did in training,” said Gstrein, who also changed the material setup before the second run. His set-up in the first round was also too aggressive. The thick ice stock, which caused difficult conditions in the giant slalom on Tuesday, was already softened on the surface by plus temperatures and constant rain. Nevertheless, the ice was the prerequisite for a fair race.
Even if the Schladming team drew an overall positive conclusion following the double: The night slalom was once once more clearly the highlight. 25,000 fans ensured a sold-out stadium, thousands of fans celebrated despite the inhospitable conditions in the city center and a handful of climate critics also came by to protest in front of Chancellor Karl Nehammer.
The race can be read in the live ticker
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