Henrik Kristoffersen beats history-maker AJ Ginnis in thrilling men’s slalom at Alpine Ski World Championships

Henrik Kristoffersen won gold at the FIS Alpine Ski World Championships in Courchevel, Francel narrowly beating out Greek history-makerwho AJ Ginnis won the silver, his nation’s first ever World Championships medal.

After the first run, 18 of the starters were within one second of the lead. Austrian Manuel Feller had finished fastest, ahead of Ginnis and Norwegian Lucas Braathen.

Braathen, back in action just two weeks after undergoing surgery to remove his appendix, had missed Chamonix and the world championship giant slalom but was among the favourites to take gold on the course known as L’Éclipse.

British hopeful Dave Ryding was just over a second off the pace on his first attempt, good enough for a place in the next round. He finished just outside the top 20 with fellow Brits Billy Major, Laurie Taylor, and Ed Guigonnet also holding on for a place in the second round and Major cracking the top 30.

The course was a hugely challenging one, deliberately designed to test out the racers and featuring a huge offset between the first gates.

30 racers failed to finish on the first run, and Spaniard Joaquim Salarich was the course’s first victim on the second.

Tobias Kastlunger set down an early marker in the second round, flying down the mountain and exploding out of his turns.

Croatian Filip Zubcic made a dramatic dive over the line to take top spot from the Italian just three racers later.

Ryding produced an excellent run but finished nine hundredths of a second off Zubcic and top spot.

Sebastian Holzmann snuck over the line in time to unseat Zubcic.

The nasty rut that had developed during the first run had been groomed but began to re-emerge as the second round continued.

Defending champion Sebastian Foss-Solevag lost crucial speed there and finished well off the pace.

Despite nearly falling victim to the deceptive offset, Henrik Kristoffersen recovered to fly into the lead.

The next 12 racers failed to beat him, but Braathen, Ginnis and Feller were still to come.

Braathen was blazing, but a slip midway through the course cost him any hopes of a medal, and left Kristoffersen top.

Ginnis guaranteed Greece its first ever world championship medal with an impressively risk-taking run. His tight turns and aggressive acceleration earned him second place with only one racer to come.

The Greek had previously raced as an American but was discarded by US skiing and returned to the flag of his home country in 2018.

Austrian Feller was the final racer of the top 30 to come but a poor run knocked him down to seventh, and Kristoffersen could celebrate.

The 28-year-old had won a bronze in 2021 at Cortina d’Ampezzo, but went two better in Courchevel.

– –