Swiss Loic Meillard is the new Olympic winner in slalom. Croatian skier Filip Zubcic took 13th place in Bormio, while BiH representative Marko Šljivić took 23rd place.
Zubcic was 15th after the first run, and in much better weather conditions in the second run he improved his ranking by two placestrailing Meillard by 2.75 seconds. Sljivić took 26th place in the first run, and his gap at that time was almost seven seconds behind the leading Norwegian Atle Lie McGrath, who failed to finish the second run so the gold went to Switzerland.
It’s for Zubčić best placement in the slalom at the Olympic Games because he was 22nd in Beijing four years ago. His greatest Olympic success remains the tenth place in the giant slalom, also four years ago. This is for Sljivić second performance at the Winter Olympics after finishing 39th in the giant slalom two days ago.
The Swiss took the skiers four out of five golds at these Games.
Meillard won gold after silver in the team combination and bronze in the giant slalom, helped by Norway’s Atle Lie McGrath, leading after the first run, who hacked the door at the start of the second run.
Austria’s Fabio Gstrein took silver, 35 hundredths of a second behind, and Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen (+1.13) took bronze. The Norwegian Timon Haugan was fourth, and the Olympic champion from Beijing, the Frenchman Clement Noel, fell.
Ranking:
1. Loic Meillard SWI 1:53.61
2. Fabio Gstrein AUT 1:53.96
3. Henrik Kristoffersen NOR 1:54.74
4. Timon Haugan NOR 1:55.03
5. Armand Marchant BEL 1:55.61
…
13. Filip Zubcic HRV 1:56.36
…
23. Marko Šljivić BIH 2:02.96
(www.jabuka.tv/Hina | Photo: Michael Kappeler/DPA/Pixsell)
