The Albany Gazette - Meillard's double delight, Braathen bags first Brazilian podium

Meillard, who won the giant slalom on Saturday, clocked a winning combined time of 1min 57.05sec after setting the fastest time in the first leg.

"It's a dream for a tech skiers to win both days, GS and slalom, and for it to happen this weekend, it's pretty amazing," Meillard said.

"My slalom form has been pretty good," he said. "It's been a great season in slalom and just try to keep it rolling, one more race to go."

Norway's Atle Lie McGrath finished second, at 0.21sec, while his former teammate Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, now racing for his mother's homeland of Brazil after falling out with the Norwegian ski federation, finished third (+0.47sec) to ensure a first-ever World Cup podium for the South American country.

"I thought I had it today," admitted Pinheiro Braathen, who spent his formative skiing days on the slopes of Hafjell. "I thought today was going to be the day where Brazil takes home a first World Cup victory.

"This is one of those days where you get to live the peak. There are many shitty days and many tough days underneath the success like today, but that's exactly why it tastes so sweet.

"It goes without saying the fact that I get to share that with my friend Atle, quite frankly, it's incredible. I'm beyond proud of what I've been able to accomplish."

Britain's Billy Major held the lead with the top nine from the first leg to come.

That proved short lived as first Tanguy Nef and then Timon Haugan went faster.

France's Olympic champion Clement Noel was fourth fastest in the first run, two ahead of Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen, who enjoyed a 77-point lead over Noel in the slalom standings coming into the race.

Kristoffersen slipped in behind Haugan before their teammate McGrath claimed provisional top spot.

Noel was next down, but could only finish 0.41sec slower than Kristoffersen.

That left the top three. Austrian Fabio Gstrein was 0.47sec off McGrath's pace.

A slight mistake in the bottom third saw Pinheiro Braathen squander his lead, but his performance was enough to guarantee a Brazilian podium finish with just Meillard to come.

The Swiss made no mistake, holding his nerve perfectly for a sixth World Cup win to cap a very successful weekend of racing.

Kristoffersen heads the slalom standings on 612 points, 47pts ahead of Meillard, with Noel in third, 86pts adrift.

There is one more slalom to be held this season, at next week's World Cup finals in Sun Valley, Idaho, on March 27.

With podium finishers bagging 100, 80 and 60 points respectively, the battle for the discipline's crystal globe remains up for grabs.

"It's still a big gap, so he (Kristoffersen) has to fail a little bit and I have to do something pretty special like today," Meillard said. "It's going to be a nice fight until the end."

(M.Scott--TAG)