The men’s 2015-16 Alpine Skiing World Cup season concluded with the final slalom in St. Moritz. The race was won by André Myhrer, accompanied by Marcel Hirscher and Sebastian Foss Solevåg on the podium.
Surprises On Top On First Run
After the first ten starters, André Myhrer was somewhat surprisingly leading the race. The seventh of the slalom World Cup standings had one of his best runs of the season to lead ahead of Marcel Hirscher and Felix Neureuther.
Yet the following three starters made the biggest surprises of the first run. Daniel Yule, racing in his home country Switzerland, beat Myhrer’s time by 0.20 seconds for the lead. Sebastian Foss Solevåg was the following man on the slope, losing only 0.04 seconds to Yule. The top three was completed by Marco Schwarz who went into second place, just 0.01 seconds from lead.
The season’s slalom champion Henrik Kristoffersen wasn’t at his best on the first run of the final race. Kristoffersen was only 15th, 0.88 seconds from lead.
First Victory In Three Years For Myhrer
Henrik Kristoffersen had the poorest slalom race of his season in St. Moritz. The slalom World Cup champion lost four places on the second run, finishing in 19th place.
Marcel Hirscher had a brilliant second run, beating the first run’s 11th, Julien Lizeroux. Yet Hirscher’s lead was short-lived; with a slightly quicker second run André Myhrer claimed the lead by 0.14 seconds with three men remaining.
Sebastian Foss Solevåg started the top three of the first run, all aiming for their maiden World Cup race victory. Foss Solevåg couldn’t match the runs of Myhrer and Hirscher but went into third place, 0.36 seconds behind.
Marco Schwarz, second of the first run, couldn’t achieve his third career podium but finished the race in fifth place behind Lizeroux. After him, it was Daniel Yule concluding the race and deciding if it was him or Foss Solevåg making his first World Cup podium in the final race of the season. Yule couldn’t repeat his great first run but fell down into 11th place, 1.22 seconds from winner.
That meant André Myhrer won the slalom of St. Moritz, the first race victory for the 2012 slalom World Cup champion since November 2012.
Slalom Title For Kristoffersen, Overall For Hirscher
Henrik Kristoffersen had secured his first slalom World Cup title already before the final race of St. Moritz. The three-time defending champion Marcel Hirscher finished in the second place of the standings, 31 points behind Kristoffersen. With a 10th place from the final slalom of St. Moritz, the last three season’s runner-up Felix Neureuther finished in third place, already 422 points behind Kristoffersen.
Kristoffersen and Hirscher were also the top two of the overall standings, though in a reverse order. Hirscher achieved 1795 points to beat Kristoffersen by 497 points for his fifth consecutive overall World Cup title, equaling Marc Girardelli’s record of most overall titles.
Alexis Pinturault repeated his previous season’s third place of the overall standings, eventually missing the second place by 98 points. The previous season’s runner-up, Kjetil Jansrud, finished in fourth place, missing the third place by 39 points. Despite missing the second half of the season, Aksel Lund Svindal at 916 points was the third Norwegian in the top five, 245 points behind the fourth-placed Jansrud.