The star of Bulgarian alpine skiing Albert Popov took 14th place in the slalom for the World Cup in Kranjska Gora (Slovenia) with a total time of 1:40.52 minutes and was 1.26 seconds behind the winner Henrik Kristoffersen (Norway).
Popov was moving 8th after the first run, but the warm weather for Utopia prevented not only him from realizing his maximum. This ranking of Popov is his best for the World Cup in the Slovenian resort. The Bulgarian actually started very well in the second run and just before the fourth sector, by which point he had a lead of 0.51 seconds over the leader at the time, Victor Muffat-Jandet (France).
Kristoffersen doubled his victory yesterday in the giant slalom, and after the first run he was in 6th place. But excellent riding in the second part brought him to the top. Last to descend was this year's world champion in slalom, Loic Meillard, who, however, was unable to calculate his strength, and apparently the softened snow also had an impact.
Second place went to another Norwegian - Timon Haugan, who gave a time of 1:39.43 minutes. Third place on the podium went to Manuel Feller (Austria) with 1:39.49. The top 6 was completed by the Swiss Loic Meillard and Tanguy Neff, and the surprising leader until the descent of the last six was Victor Mufa-Jandet. The Frenchman was only in 26th place in the first run, and only in the second he set the first time.
In the World Cup standings, Marco Odermann (Switzerland) leads with 1306 points, ahead of this weekend's two-time winner Kristoffersen with 946 and Loic Meillard with 731. Albert Popov is 30th here with 211 points.
Kristoffersen leads the Small Crystal Globe with 567 points, ahead of Clement Noel (France) with 464 and Meillard with 415. Here, Popov is 12th with 211 points.