Norway's Atle Lie McGrath claims 1st career World Cup win with slalom victory in Austria
Olympic champion Clement Noel of France finishes 0.29 seconds behind for 2nd place
Norwegian skier Atle Lie McGrath secured his first career World Cup win Wednesday in a night slalom that produced the eighth different winner in nine races in the discipline this season.
McGrath trailed leader Johannes Strolz by almost a second after the opening run, but the Austrian dropped to fourth following several mistakes in his final run.
Olympic champion Clement Noel of France placed second, 0.29 seconds behind McGrath. The rest of the field, led by Daniel Yule of Switzerland in third, was more than six tenths of a second off the lead.
Canadian Olympian Erik Read of Canmore, Alta., finished 18th (1:53.94), while North Vancouver's Jordan Asher failed to qualify.
Britain's Dave Ryding, who was fifth after the opening run, straddled a gate and did not finish his final run.
The battle for the slalom season title features two Norwegian teammates of McGrath's: Henrik Kristoffersen, the only racer with multiple slalom wins this season, and Lucas Braathen.
With only the season-ending race at the World Cup Finals on March 10 remaining, Kristoffersen leads Braathen by 48 points.
Both had disappointing showings on Wednesday: Kristoffersen only just qualified for the second run in 28th place, but posted the fastest second-run time to improve to 16th. Braathen failed to reduce the gap to his teammate in the standings when de dropped from seventh to 15th, earning just one point more than Kristoffersen.
Luke Winters was fifth fastest in the final run as the American finished a career-best seventh, two months after earning his first top-10 result at slalom in Adelboden.
Final race for Mölgg
The first run marked the 329th and last race in the 19-year-long World Cup career of Manfred Mölgg.
The Italian veteran, who turns 40 in June, clicked out of one ski at the end of his run and slid over the finish on his other ski while waving to the spectators.
Mölgg won three World Cup races, all in slalom, and racked up 20 podium results between 2004 and 2017.
Flachau is an annual stop on the women's circuit but is stepping in to host a men's event for the second straight season.
The race replaced a slalom from early January that was called off after 19 starters due to bad course conditions in Zagreb.
