WENGEN, Switzerland (AFP) - French tyro Clement Noel won his first ever World Cup race on Sunday clinching the men's slalom on the iconic Wengen slopes by setting the fastest morning chrono and holding off the opposition with a steady second run.
The 21-year-old is the first Frenchman to win a World Cup slalom since Alexis Pinturault five years ago. He relegated Austrian pair Manuel Feller to second at 0.08sec and Marcel Hirscher to third at 0.10.
Noel, the 2018 junior world champion in slalom who also came fourth at the Olympic Games, has been straining at the leash in this season's slalom and won high praise a week ago when coming a narrow second to Hirscher on the daunting Adelboden slope.
********New kid on the slalom block Clement Noel of France on his way to a maiden world cup victory.