The Albany Gazette - Strasser shines under Schladming floodlights

Strasser took command after the first run to give himself the perfect platform to follow up his slalom win at Kitzbuehel on Sunday.

Under Schladming's floodlights and in front of tens of thousands of fans braving the Austrian night, Strasser topped the midway timesheet by 0.10 seconds from Norway's Timon Haugan.

He kept his cool in the second run for a combined time of 1min 45.20sec.

Haugan held on to his second position, 0.28sec adrift with France's Olympic champion Clement Noel, who won his last slalom here a year ago, in third at 1.02sec.

The first leg was briefly interrupted when climate activists sprinkled orange powder at the start.

The home Austrian favourite Manuel Feller took fifth and now leads the discipline standings by 142 points ahead of Strasser.

Marco Odermatt, who won the giant slalom on the slope 24 hours earlier but missed this, holds a significant 596-point lead in the overall standings as he targets a third straight big crystal globe.

At Kitzbuehel Strasser had produced a thrilling second run to notch up his fourth World Cup win at the expense of the favourites. Some 48 hours later his World Cup tally had swelled to five.

(T.Wright--TAG)