World Cup slalom leader Manuel Feller denied the Norwegian men an emotional win Sunday, one day after their team leader Aleksander Aamodt Kilde crashed in downhill and was airlifted from the Wengen course in Switzerland.
Feller posted a two-run time of one minute 50.28 seconds to edge Atle Lie McGrath for victory for a second straight Sunday, by 0.10 seconds instead of the 0.02 margin one week earlier at nearby Adelboden.
McGrath said after setting the fastest first-run time in the morning he was “just skiing for Aleksander today.”
The Vermont-born McGrath protected his lead through every time check in the afternoon until losing almost four-tenths of a second through the twisting final section. He put his right hand to helmet in the finish area seeming not to have understood how the win slipped away.
“I probably need to thank him [McGrath] for pushing me,” Feller said. “My skiing is probably the best I have ever shown.”
Henrik Kristoffersen, the Norwegian world champion, dropped to place third in 1:50.49, trailing 0.21 behind Feller who had been third-fastest in the morning.
WATCH | Feller earns 3rd slalom victory in 4 World Cup races this season:
Manuel Feller of Austria crossed the finish line with the winning time of 1:50.28 winning Sunday’s World Cup slalom race from Wengen, Switzerland.
No Canadians were entered in the race.
Feller now has won three of four slalom races this season and extended his lead in the discipline standings with McGrath now second.
McGrath produced the standout run of the morning acknowledging “I didn’t sleep much last night,” reflecting on Kilde’s hard crash Saturday into course-side fences by the finish line.
Before the race Sunday, Kilde posted a photograph from his hospital bed with partner Mikaela Shiffrin in Bern where he had surgery.
The Norwegian ski federation said Kilde had a disclocated shoulder and a cut to his right calf but no fractures.
I’m here (and being taken care of by the one and only <a href=”https://twitter.com/MikaelaShiffrin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@MikaelaShiffrin</a> ❤️🩹)…patched up…thank you so much for all of the messages. I’m grateful for all the words of love and support. This sport can be brutal, but I still love it. 🙏🏻<br><br>Will share more later. <a href=”https://t.co/CNwkHzJz0q”>pic.twitter.com/CNwkHzJz0q</a>
—@AleksanderKilde
“It was tough to see. I didn’t sleep much last night,” McGrath told Swiss broadcaster RTS of Kilde’s crash. “That kind of put things in perspective, when someone gets injured that bad which is really scary.
“I realize I’m just lucky to be here,” said the 23-year-old McGrath, whose father Felix raced slalom for the United States at the 1988 Calgary Olympics.
WATCH | Kilde airlifted to hospital after crash at Wengen:
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway crashed hard into the fencing Saturday during the World Cup downhill race in Wengen, Switzerland and had to be removed by helicopter.
He described the Wengen slalom as “one of the most legendary races” and a quirk of the course — raced on a slope adjoining the downhill with a shared finish area — is the two runs go either side of an old farm building in the middle of the hill.
Austria had not won this race since Marcel Hirscher in 2018, in the seventh of his record eight straight seasons lifting the overall World Cup title. In Hirscher’s last race at Wengen the following year he placed third, when Feller was runner-up to Clement Noel.
Noel, the 2022 Olympic champion in slalom, placed fourth Sunday using the fastest second-leg run to rise eight places.
Marco Odermatt, who won both downhills at Wengen but does not race in slalom, has double the number of points of any rival in the overall standings chasing a third straight title.
The men’s World Cup now moves to storied Austrian venue Kitzbuhel where the Hahnenkamm race Saturday is the most feared and prized downhill on the men’s circuit. A slalom is raced there next Sunday.
WATCH | Full coverage of Sunday’s 2nd slalom run from Switzerland:
Watch run two of the FIS alpine World Cup men’s slalom from Wengen, Switzerland.