Kitzbühel (Austria) (AFP) - Austrian Manuel Feller claimed victory in the men’s World Cup slalom in Kitzbuehel on Sunday, making up for his speed teammates’ disappointing showing in the downhill.

Feller, fourth fastest after the first leg, clocked a combined winning time of 1min 40.60sec for his seventh World Cup victory, perfect timing ahead of next month’s Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.

It was the first Austrian victory in the Kitzbuehel slalom since Marcel Hirscher in 2017 and a first podium in eight races this season for the technical specialists of this ski-mad nation.

Switzerland’s world slalom champion Loic Meillard, who led after the first run, was second at 0.35sec, with Germany’s Linus Strasser rounding out the podium (+0.53sec).

It was a timely win on a personal level for the 33-year-old Feller, a world slalom silver medallist in St. Moritz in 2017 whose last World Cup victory was way back in February 2024.

“This year I was close to quitting a few times, I had no energy for a few races,” said the emotional Austrian, who scooped prize money of 101,000 euros ($118,000).

“But quitting was not an option and I kept on going and it was all worth it.”

Feller, who made his Kitzbuehel debut in 2013, added: “It’s just amazing. It’s probably my toughest season, and one of the toughest moments of my life.

“I kept fighting and fighting, it was worth it all. Right now skiing feels pretty good.”

The victory went some way to compensate for the uninspired performance by Feller’s teammates in Saturday’s downhill won by Italy’s Giovanni Franzoni from Swiss star Marco Odermatt.

Vincent Kriechmayr was the highest-finishing Austrian, in 13th, in the famed downhill while there were only two other home skiers in the top 25. Local media were relentless in their criticism.

- Unforgiving course -

In the slalom, Briton Billy Major set the early pace in the second leg, but that didn’t last long on the shady Ganslern slope, the ice shining through on the testing, hard-packed slope.

Austrian Joshua Sturm and then teammate Fabio Gstrein, 22nd fastest after the first leg but quickest in the second, took control.

Britain’s Dave Ryding, who won here in 2022 and will hang up his skis after the Olympics, failed to bother the podium, eventually finishing 20th more than 2sec off the pace.

Gstrein’s teammate Marco Schwarz, a seven-time world medallist, straddled, while Switzerland’s Daniel Yule, a two-time winner on the Ganslern (2020, 2023), failed to shift Gstrein.

That task finally fell to Brazil’s Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, who went 0.73sec ahead of the Austrian who finished up a creditable 11th.

Then came the top 10 from the first leg. Strasser, the 2024 winner here, moved into pole position.

France’s Paco Rassat, Norwegian Timon Haugan and Olympic champion Clement Noel were all left clutching their helmets in frustration in the finish area as the smallest mistake or incorrect choice of line proved costly.

Swiss racer Tanguy Nef and Belgian Armand Marchant similarly failed to get the better of Strasser, leaving the top four to race.

Feller, buoyed by a huge partisan crowd gathered around the course, set the flags flying and airhorns blaring as he scorched into the lead by more than half a second.

Norwegian veteran Henrik Kristoffersen couldn’t make it 101 career podiums as he went on to finish way down in 10th (+0.98sec).

Second fastest in the first leg, Finland’s Eduard Hallberg paid for a badly-executed transition over a pitch coming into the final third of the race, eventually finishing fifth behind Braathen.

That left Meillard, who set off with a 0.35sec advantage. That deficit quickly slipped away and Feller was a picture of shock as he realised he had won after his Swiss rival streaked through the finish line in second.