WENGEN, Switzerland (AP) — Henrik Kristoffersen raced through steady falling snow to win a World Cup slalom Sunday and give Norway a three-race weekend sweep.
For the third straight day, in three different disciplines, a Norwegian won with a home Swiss racer runner-up.
Kristoffersen finished 0.20 seconds ahead of first-run leader Loïc Meillard who was denied giving Switzerland a first win in its classic World Cup slalom for 36 years.
Lucas Braathen was third, 0.49 behind his Norway teammate Kristoffersen, one week after he won the slalom at nearby Adelboden. Other racers were all at least one second further back.
Kristoffersen’s 30th career World Cup win lifted him back into the lead over Braathen in the season-long slalom standings.
He completed the Norwegian sweep at Wengen just as he did in 2016, when Aksel Lund Svindal won the downhill and Kjetil Jansrud won the Alpine combined.
This time, the Norway triple was started by Aleksander Aamodt Kilde winning in super-G and downhill. The runners-up were, respectively, Stefan Rogentin and Marco Odermatt, who leads the overall World Cup standings.
Falling snow slowed the course in the second run of a tricky race Sunday. Racers cited the tight and twisting first-run gate-setting on the steep hill by a British coach for the big time gaps.
Only five racers were within 1.6 seconds of Meillard in the morning run and some were more than four seconds back despite placing in the top 20.
No Swiss racer has won the Wengen slalom since Joël Gaspoz in 1987.
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