Gold to Meillard

LIVE from 9.45 am: Who will win gold in the men’s slalom?

Manuel Feller

(Bild: Birbaumer Christof)

The World Ski Championships in Saalbach-Hinterglemm ended without any Austrian slalom stars. Manuel Feller finished a thankless fourth (+0.79 sec.) after Switzerland's Loic Meillard won on Sunday. The Tyrolean medal candidate's final attack was just not enough for precious metal. Silver went to the Norwegian Atle Lie McGrath (+0.26), bronze to the German Linus Straßer (+0.52). France's Clement Noel, who was leading at the halfway point, faded.

Dominik Raschner (8th) made up 15 places in the final slalom spectacle in front of 23,000 ski fans. Fabio Gstrein finished eleventh. Marco Schwarz had a brief appearance. The Carinthian slipped on the inside ski at the eighth gate in the first run and off the course.

Feller's "biggest defeat"
 "It's definitely the biggest defeat of my career," said Feller, unable to find anything positive after fourth place. "I'm not getting any younger, I definitely won't have any more home World Championships." He missed out on a second World Championship medal after slalom silver in 2017 due to the first run, in which he only finished sixth.

Here are the results in detail:

Austria finished the 48th Alpine World Championships as number two in the medal table behind Switzerland (5/5/3). Seven medals - two gold, three silver and two bronze - are the average in the recent past.

Ten years after Jean-Baptiste Grange in Vail - Beaver Creek, Noel failed to bring slalom gold back to the "Grande Nation". Instead, Team Combined World Champion Meillard won the first slalom World Championship medal for the Swiss men since Silvan Zurbriggen in 2003. He is the first Swiss slalom World Champion since Georges Schneider in Aspen in 1950. "Three races and three medals in one World Championships, that's just brilliant. I can really enjoy this moment. I'm not against it if we have a race here every year," said Meillard.

Third-fastest run time to take the metal
Feller was just under six tenths off the podium in a spinning first run. That was a "big gap" to a medal, explained the man from Fieberbrunn at the halfway point of the race. "I sensed that it wasn't quite ideal." In order to fulfill his big dream of nobility at home after all, the 32-year-old turned up the heat in the much faster final. He was neck-and-neck with Ryding before he took half a second off the Briton with a brilliant final section - and set the third-fastest time for the top five.

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Straßer promptly countered, his strong run putting him in first place and silencing the majority of the fans. Timon Haugan slipped back behind Feller. But not his Norwegian colleague McGrath, who only failed the Didier Cuche flip in the finish area after a spot-on performance. Meillard showed no nerves, finishing in first place and knocking Feller off the podium. It was up to Noel to finish the World Championships. The Frenchman already lost his lead in the upper part of the course and faltered on the course set by his coach.

Raschner jumped to the front
Raschner was allowed to enjoy the lead for ten runners. "There's nothing better, there are so many fans there." Only Dave Ryding (6th) replaced him at the top. He said that leaving the ski out worked well for him in the second run. "I would have expected a bit more", the Tyrolean drew an ambivalent balance of the World Championships, "I can finish the World Championships well with the last run".

Dominik Raschner

(Bild: Birbaumer Christof)

Schwarz missed out on a medal at his fourth World Championships in a row. "It was a relatively short performance," he said after his "stupid retirement". "Of course, I'm also aware that a lot would have had to come together for a medal. But I would have liked to have taken my chance, unfortunately it fell through."