Kristoffersen continues love affair in Garmisch to grab slalom season lead

For the third time in 11 months Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR) proved far too good for the rest of slalom’s best on Germany’s Garmisch-Partenkirchen slopes, securing another brilliant Audi FIS World Cup win on Wednesday evening.

In front of a buoyant crowd, the Norwegian made light of the difficult, deteriorating second run conditions in what is fast becoming his second home to finish ahead of a pumped-up Manuel Feller (AUT) and a relieved Clement Noel (FRA).

Alberto Tomba (ITA) is the only other male slalom skier to secure three wins in three successive World Cup starts in the home of German skiing. The great man himself would surely have approved of the composure Kristoffersen showed in the face of a course described by Britain’s Dave Ryding as “like weaving your way through porridge”.

“I was pretty calm at the start actually,” Kristoffersen said. “I thought the second run, the conditions were rough but not so bad. I have skied in worse. There were some gates that were really nice to ski and I took pretty good advantage of that, skiing smart and not risking too much.”

The 28-year-old now has an incredible 22 World Cup slalom wins to his name. But after following two World Cup giant slalom runners-up finishes with a second place last time out in Madonna di Campiglio in the slalom, he had begun to wonder when he would reach that mark.

“After three second places in a row, it is good to win,” he laughed. “I just tried to do the things that make me ski faster. I tried to focus on the technique, on the tactical stuff in the course and that’s it.”