Alpine Skiing - Alexis Pinturault thrills home fans with monster performance
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Updated 15/12/2019 at 13:35 GMT
Alexis Pinturault took his second win of the season on Sunday as he delighted the home fans with victory in the Slalom at Val D’Isere.
France's skier Alexis Pinturault (C) celebrates his victory on podium next to second place Sweden' skier Andre Myhrer (L) and third place Italy's skier Stefano Gross, in the FIS Alpine World Cup Men Slalom on December 15, 2019 in Val d'Isere, French Alps
Image credit: Getty Images
Pinturault led the way after the first run with an impressive time of 52.85 and coming into his second he had Andre Myhrer to beat.
Pinturault kept his composure and pushed hard and came down the track with the third quickest time of the second run at 55.06.
It gave him an overall time of 1:47.91, 1.44 ahead of Myhrer.
It’s Pinturault’s 25th career victory and he goes top of the overall standings.
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'An emphatic victory!' - Pinturault storms to victory
Speaking afterwards he mentioned the troubles he’s had with Slalom.
“It’s something unbelievable,” he said when asked about winning in front of the French fans.
“I worked so hard for so many years, had so many issues in this discipline.
“I nearly quit then two years ago we decided to focus on slalom, last year I made some podiums but never first place but this year I made it and I’m really proud of it.”
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'I nearly quit!' - Pinturault thrilled with slalom turnaround
Aside from Pinturault the undoubted story of the second run was Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen.
After a disastrous opening run Kristoffersen flew down the piste with a blistering second run time of 53.72 which took him from 27th all the way up to fourth, just 0.01 behind third-placed Stefano Gross who is back after eight months out with a knee injury.
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Kristoffersen recovers with brilliant second to take fourth
Pinturault alluded to the early runs, where plenty of other skiers struggles, when he was asked about his strategy.
“Yeah I mean I watched the first guys. I saw it was pretty tricky to ski fast.
“I was thinking okay we have no room I really have to push and do my best because it really will be a fight.”
Elsewhere it was a tough second run for Great Britain’s Dave Ryding who finished 17th, and for the surprise of the opening run Luke Winters, who finished two spots further back.
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