Lucas Braathen roars from 29th to 1st to land surprise slalom win at World Cup in Wengen

BySportsbeat

Updated 17/01/2022 at 15:40 GMT

Lucas Braathen went from 29th after his first run to first place after his second run to win World Cup slalom gold in Wengen, Switzerland. It was a remarkable performance from the 21-year-old Norwegian, who went almost a second faster than anyone else on the second run. Braathen seriously injured his knee last year but has shown he is back among the best slalomers in the world.

Braathen delivers stunning second run in Wengen to land surprise slalom World Cup win

Norwegian Lucas Braathen produced an inspired second run in Wengen to claim his first World Cup slalom victory with a remarkable record-breaking performance.

The 21-year-old was down in 29th position after his first run of 53.31 seconds, trailing his compatriot and Olympic medallist Henrik Kristoffersen by a sizeable 2.04 seconds.

But Braathen delivered a sensational second run to cross the line in 48.17 for a total time of 1:41.48 to take top spot, finishing 0.22 seconds ahead of Switzerland's Daniel Yule in second.

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Yule moved up into silver with a second run of 49.55 for a combined time of 1:41.70, having been in eighth place after his first effort, while Italian Giuliano Razzoli completed the podium.

Razzoli was ninth after his first run but followed up his first effort of 52.28 with a time of 49.49 to take the bronze in 1:41.77, just edging Fabio Gstrein (1:41.80) of Austria into fourth.

Braathen's victory saw him make up the most places to win ever in men's slalom history, bettering Swiss racer Marc Berthod's triumph in Adelboden in 2007 after he finished 27th in the first run.

Teammate Kristoffersen was unable to back up first run time of 51.27 seconds, which had given him the early lead over Austrian Manuel Feller and Norwegian world champion Sebastian Foss-Solevaag.

He skied out close to the bottom of the course to record a DNF while Feller (1:41.87) and Foss-Solevagg (1:41.88) also dropped out of medal contention, finishing fifth and sixth respectively.

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