Haugan's Slalom victory spoils perfect Val d'Isère weekend for Meillard

Timon Haugan (NOR/Van Deer) ruined a perfect weekend for Loic Meillard (SUI/Rossignol) by winning Sunday's Slalom in Val d'Isère.

Meillard had won Saturday's Giant Slalom race in impressive fasion to put his early-season struggles to bed, and was primed to potentially do the Val d'Isère double when he clocked the fastest time in the opening run of Sunday's skiing.

But Haugan was only five hundredths of a second slower than the Swiss on that first run, and on his second he conquered slowly deteriorating conditions that had brought about DNFs for two of the final five skiers in Lucas Pinheiro Braathen (BRA/Atomic) and Atle Lie McGrath (NOR/Head).

Penultimate athlete on the second run, Haugan had complained of back issues leading up to the race, but put that behind him to drive his way into each turn with slick and disciplined skiing that saw him cross the line to a green light and a total time of 1:37.89.

That only left Meillard as the final athlete of the day, and the Rossignol skier duly went out with aggressive intent from the outset in an attempt to usurp his Norwegian rival.

Though Meillard slowly clawed back time through the middle section to set up a tight finish, mistakes at the top meant he eventually crossed 28 hundredths of a second slower than Haugan and finish second, one place ahead of Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR/Van Deer) in third (+0.34).

"It was pretty bad this morning but then it actually got a little bit better," Haugan said of his back pain.

"It was tough. Especially before the first run, that was probably the worst part. I went back to my room and just tried to breathe, tried to make the muscles relax and get ready for the first run.

"The first run went well, and then it was just one more run; do my best and see what happens.

"I'm extremely happy with the win and with the whole day."

Haugan, who now has a record-extending seven consecutive top-five Slalom finishes, described his Val d'Isère visit as a "perfect weekend" after coming fourth in the Giant Slalom the day before Sunday's win.

"It was amazing. I was very nervous, it's a tough hill - tough with the tracks," the Van Deer athlete said. "So many guys going out and doing a lot of mistakes so I was just nervous that it could happen to me as well.

"I managed to follow my plan and avoid the big mistakes and get a big victory."

Though Meillard narrowly missed out on a double victory, he was still delighted with his visit to La Face de Bellevarde.

"Definitely a great weekend," he said. "Today was definitely not easy on the second run but I knew we had to push and it was a good fight.

"We always want (the win), that's for sure, but I think I can be happy with how I skied, with the way I pushed.

"A few small mistakes too many to be on the top, but it was definitely a nice fight and good skiing as well."

Haugan's win was Norway's third consecutive Slalom victory at Val d'Isère after Kristoffersen won last season and Pinheiro Braathen - now racing for Brazil - stood on top of the podium in 2022/23.

Kristoffersen will have been hoping to back up last year's victory when he finished fourth fastest in Sunday's first run, but was left to lament an error at the top of his second run which cost him a chance to stand on top of a podium for the first time this season.

"A mistake on the second run cost way too much time," he said. "From there down was really fast, that's the only reason I'm on the podium because with that mistake you're really not.

"We're not such bad skiers so we can manage it even while doing it with this mistake.

"But it's better to be fast and make mistakes than to just be slow like my second (Giant Slalom) run yesterday."

Alex Vinatzer (ITA/Atomic) and Hans Grahl-Madsen (NOR/Head) were respectively the two fastest skiers in the second run, which left Vinatzer leading the race until Kristoffersen arrived for his second run.

The Italian would eventually finish fourth overall, while Grahl-Madsen's finish of sixth was his career best return in any discipline at a World Cup since making his debut in the Bankso Giant Slalom at the beginning of last year.

Oscar Andreas Sandvik (NOR/Head was the man to finish fifth, which represented a first ever top ten finish in a World Cup for the Norwegian.