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| - With 50,000 home fans ringing cowbells, burning flares and straddling the Schladming piste, first run leader Marco Schwarz dashed home hopes missing a gate on his second run as Henrik Kristoffersen won at the raucous, floodlit slalom World Cup event on Tuesday. Alpine skiing is Austria's national sport and the nation is searching for a new slalom hero after the retirement last season of record-setting Marcel Hirscher, who won 67 World Cup races. In fog and snow the 24-year-old Schwarz had given the crowd great cheer and set pulses racing after nailing the first run to lead a tight field with a festive atmosphere on a Planai mountain awash with colour. World Cup slalom leader Kristoffersen was breathing down Schwarz's neck just 0.14sec adrift after the first run, and despite almost missing a gate on the more icy second run held on as he swooped through the tight gates for a comfortable win ahead of Alexis Pinturault. "I'm sorry for Marco. I wanted him to fight all the way," said the 25-year-old Norwegian, who trained for years in the region and lived in nearby Salzburg. "I used to live near here and it's where I won my first World Cup race, so it's almost like I was at home." Frenchman Pinturault came second at 0.34 seconds after crashing out in his previous two events, while Kitzbuehel slalom king Daniel Yule of Switzerland came third. French tyro Clement Noel produced an astonishing second run of 49.35sec to leap from 30th to fourth. That run was over a second faster than any other racer in the top 10, in either of the two descents. In the World Cup slalom standings Kristoffersen now has 552 points with Yule on 495 and Noel on 450. In the race for the overall World Cup title Kristoffersen also leads on 841 with Pinturault on 722 and Aleksander Kilde on 700. rg/clv/dmc/td
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