(Reuters) – Austria’s Marco Schwarz sealed the Alpine skiing men’s World Cup slalom title on Sunday after finishing seventh in a race in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.
France’s Clement Noel won ahead of compatriot Victor Muffat-Jeandet with Switzerland’s Ramon Zehnhaeusern third.
Schwarz played it safe in tricky conditions to take his points tally to an unbeatable 625 to Zehnhaeusern’s 503 with one race remaining.
The World Cup finals are being held in Lenzerheide, Switzerland next week, starting with the men’s downhill on Wednesday and with the men’s overall, downhill, super-G and giant slalom globes still to be decided.
Three women’s globes are also still up for grabs, with Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova leading Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami by 96 points overall.
Vlhova also leads the women’s slalom standings with a slender lead of 22 points over Austrian Katharina Liensberger and American Mikaela Shiffrin a further 15 behind.
Italy’s Sofia Goggia is 70 points clear of Switzerland’s Corinne Suter in the downhill standings and set to return from a knee injury after missing the world championships on home snow in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
Goggia said on Sunday that she would take part in downhill training on Tuesday and then decide whether to race.
“Physically I am doing everything I have to do in this kind of situation. I feel quite calm,” she said. “I will just try to concentrate on the things I have to do.”
Italy’s Marta Bassino has already won the giant slalom globe and Gut-Behrami clinched the super-G title last month.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ken Ferris)
