Norway’s Windingstad wins parallel GS event for career first

ALTA BADIA, Italy (AP) — Norway’s Rasmus Windingstad won a men’s World Cup parallel giant slalom night race on Monday for his first career victory.

Windingstad defeated Stefan Luitz of Germany by 0.41 seconds in the final of the event, which sees two competitors race side-by-side on identical, shortened giant slalom courses, with run times just over 20 seconds.

It was his sixth top-10 result, and second podium finish, since coming runner-up in a regular giant slalom in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, last season.

Windingstad became the fifth different winner in the five parallel GS events held in Alta Badia since 2015, after Kjetil Jansud, Cyprien Sarrazin, Matts Olsson and Marcel Hirscher.

Roland Leitinger of Austria beat Windingstad’s Norwegian teammate Leif Kristian Nestvold-Haugen for third place.

Overall World Cup leader Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway, who won a giant slalom here on Sunday, finished seventh, while France’s Alexis Pinturault, his main rival for the overall title, was beaten in the round of 32 by Sweden’s Mattias Roenngren.

Pinturault could have become the first male Alpine skier to win a World Cup race in six of the seven different disciplines.

It was the first of two parallel GS events this season, with the other scheduled for Chamonix, France, in February.

The men’s World Cup will stay in Italy for two downhill races and an Alpine combined event in Bormio from Friday through Sunday. The first downhill replaced the one that was canceled in Val Gardena last Saturday.