Rassat claims first World Cup victory in Gurgl as Marchant secures historic Belgium podium

Paco Rassat (FRA/Head) recorded a first ever World Cup victory as he surprised a strong field to win the Slalom at Gurgl on Saturday.

Rassat (1:44.55) had never been on a World Cup podium of any kind at any point in his career heading into this weekend, with his sixth-place finish in Levi last week his previous best return.

The Frenchman's first run on the Austrian slope put him in the mix in 14th place, 0.85 seconds behind then-leader Atle Lie McGrath (NOR/Head) who would eventually finish third (+0.09). But it was Rassat's high-tempo second run, just as it was a week ago, that cannoned him up the standings.

His timing at the top of that second run was slightly off, but thereafter he slipped into a rhythm that saw him push all the way to the bottom third with aggressive but balanced skiing, eventually flying over the line to set up a nervous wait for the remaining skiers to respond.

None of the field were able to usurp the Frenchman, however, with the closest being Armand Marchant (BEL/Head), who finished seven hundredths of a second behind him for what was also the Belgian's first ever World Cup podium and only his second top-five finish after coming fifth in Zagreb in 2020. It was also a first ever World Cup podium in history for Belgium.

Timon Haugan (NOR/Van Deer) finished in fourth place (+0.29) to record back-to-back top five finishes, while Tanguy Nef (SUI/Atomic) rounded off the Gurgl top five at 65 hundredths off the pace.

"I don't know what happened," Rassat said. "It looks like I won!

"I don't know what to say. This is totally crazy. To win my first World Cup is just a dream come true today. It's a very emotional day and I'm very happy. This is insane, I don't have words."

Describing his approach to the second run, the Head skier said: "The first one was really tight. Everything was possible; a good result and a bad result. I really tried to push as hard as possible to just look for the top spots.

"I tried to ski as fast as possible and when I saw the green light at the finish line it was just amazing."

The 27-year-old had his family on hand to help him celebrate on the Austrian slope.

"My parents are there, so I can't wait to see them," he said. "Of course some tears and I don't think they will be the last ones of the day. This is amazing."

The tears were not only reserved for Rassat, with second-place Marchant emotionally paying tribute to his own parents after making history for Belgium.

"I'm speechless. I come from such a small country, no mountains. My parents did a lot for me and I'm just super happy to dedicate this podium to them. It's an amazing day," the Head athlete said.

"There's so many emotions going through my body right now but I'm just so happy. So happy. It's been really tough, I had a lot of injuries and I always fought back to be able to live this dream, this type of day. You always work for that and at the end you can say it was really worth it."

For McGrath, it was a dissatisfying second run, but the Norwegian was happy to get on the board in terms of the standings following his DNF last time out.

"It's incredible the level in Slalom now," the Head skier said. "You see the podium or the top five in Levi and the podium here today, it shows Slalom is a very difficult event and there are so many people who ski fast.

"Of course it's disappointing to come into the finish and not have a green light. It's even more disappointing to see that I'm third and not second, and then even more disappointing to see that I'm nine hundredths behind.

"But I'm very happy to be on the podium today, it was a tough race. Mentally it was a challenge for me after Levi, so I'm very happy to bounce back on the podium and ski at the level I know I can."

McGrath was one of several skiers who were undone by challenging conditions on their second run, as visibility started to deteriorate towards the end of the day.

Eduard Hallberg (FIN/Fischer) was the penultimate athlete out the gate, and his poor run down the middle saw him try force his hand near the end as he sought to continue the form that saw him stand on a World Cup podium for the first time last week, but he spun out for a DNF as his run spiralled.

There was also a DNF for reigning Slalom world champion Loic Meillard (SUI/Rossignol), who has suffered an out-of-sorts start to this season. Another to struggle is reigning men’s Slalom Crystal Globe champion Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR/Van Deer), who last season only finished outside the top ten once in 12 races, but this season already has finishes of 13th and 12th to his name.

Kristoffersen's 12th-place finish in Gurgl was tied with Clément Noël (FRA/Dynastar), who last season was top of the podium in this race, but a poor first run left him with too much to do as he failed to back up his second-place finish in Levi last weekend.