Henrik Kristoffersen gets first slalom win in nearly 2 years

Associated PressNov 24, 2019, 11:14 AM EST

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LEVI, Finland (AP) — Henrik Kristoffersen has finally triumphed again in a men’s World Cup slalom after 22 months, winning the first race since the retirement of his longtime nemesis Marcel Hirscher.

Competing in foggy conditions and snowfall, Kristoffersen edged first-run leader Clement Noel on Sunday to win the first slalom of the season.

It was the Norwegian’s 16th career victory in the discipline, but the first since winning in Kitzbuehel in January 2018.

“After the first run I thought: ‘Seven-tenths on Noel, that’s a bit too much,’” said Kristoffersen, who trailed the Frenchman by 0.68 seconds after the opening leg but beat his French rival by 0.09 thanks to a near-flawless second run.

“My skiing in slalom is much better than last year, we have worked a lot,” he said. “It was not a perfect run but it’s going in the right direction.”

Kristoffersen and Hirscher dominated the slalom circuit for years, with the Austrian mostly coming out on top.

No other skier than Hirscher (six times) or Kristoffersen (once) has won the season title in the discipline in the past seven seasons.

“In 2015, 16, 17, we were very fast, Marcel and me. Then we were a bit over the limit, I think,” Kristoffersen said. “I had to take back a bit: a bit less speed and a bit more focus on technique. Taking one step back to go three steps forward.”

With Hirscher, the record eight-time overall champion from Austria, now retired, the competition for a new slalom champion is wide open.

Noel confirmed his status as one the leading racers in the discipline by posting the fastest time in the opening run, building a lead of 0.39 seconds over Britain’s Dave Ryding.

In the second run, however, Noel had a costly mistake going into the steep part of the Levi Black course while Ryding, chasing his first win, slid off the course midway down the hill and failed to finish.

“It was a good race. It was really difficult in the second run,” Noel said. “It’s a good way to start the season. I am playing with the big boys and I am happy about that.”

Noel had his breakthrough in the final two months of last season. Without a World Cup podium finish to his name, Noel finished runner-up in Adelboden in January before winning races in Wengen, Kitzbuehel and Soldeu.

It earned him second place, shared with Switzerland’s Daniel Yule, behind Hirscher in the slalom season standings.

On Sunday, Yule improved from seventh after the opening run to third, 0.18 behind Kristoffersen.

Noel’s French teammate Alexis Pinturault finished 2.48 off the lead in the opening run and failed to qualify for the second.

Pinturault won the season-opening giant slalom last month and is widely regarded a main candidate for the overall title.

The men’s World Cup continues next week in Lake Louise, Alberta, with a downhill on Saturday and a super-G the following day, the first speed events of the season.

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French Open: Ons Jabeur completes Grand Slam quarterfinal set; one U.S. player left

By OlympicTalkJun 5, 2023, 6:56 AM EDT

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No. 7 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia dispatched 36th-ranked American Bernarda Pera 6-3, 6-1 in the French Open fourth round, breaking all eight of Pera’s service games.

Jabeur, runner-up at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year, has now reached the quarterfinals of all four majors.

Jabeur faces 14th-seeded Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia or Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo, playing on a protected ranking of 68, in Wednesday’s quarterfinals.

Pera, a 28 year-old born in Croatia, was the oldest U.S. singles player to make the fourth round of a major for the first time since Jill Craybas at 2005 Wimbledon. Her defeat leaves Coco Gauff, the 2022 French Open runner-up, as the lone American singles player left out of the 35 entered in the main draws.

The last American to win a major singles title was Sofia Kenin at the 2020 Australian Open. The 11-major drought matches the longest in history (since 1877) for American men and women combined.

Later Monday, Gauff plays 100th-ranked Slovakian Anna Karolina Schmiedlova. Top seed Iga Swiatek gets 66th-ranked Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko. The winners of those matches play each other in the quarterfinals.

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

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Jim Hines, Olympic 100m gold medalist and first to break 10 seconds, dies

By OlympicTalkJun 5, 2023, 6:06 AM EDT

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Jim Hines, a 1968 Olympic 100m gold medalist and the first person to break 10 seconds in the event, has died at age 76, according to USA Track and Field.

“I understand that God called him home today and we send the prayers up for him,” was posted on the Facebook page of John Carlos, a 1968 U.S. Olympic teammate, over the weekend.

Hines was born in Arkansas, raised in Oakland, California and attended Texas Southern University in Houston.

At the June 1968 AAU Championships in Sacramento, Hines became the first person to break 10 seconds in the 100m with a hand-timed 9.9. It was dubbed the “Night of Speed” because the world record of 10 seconds was beaten by three men and tied by seven others, according to World Athletics.

“There will never be another night like it,” Hines said at a 35th anniversary reunion in 2003, according to World Athletics. “That was the greatest sprinting series in the history of track and field.”

Later that summer, Hines won the Olympic Trials. Then he won the Olympic gold medal in Mexico City’s beneficial thin air in 9.95 seconds, the first electronically timed sub-10 and a world record that stood for 15 years.

Hines was part of a legendary 1968 U.S. Olympic track and field team that also included 200m gold and bronze medalists Tommie Smith and Carlos, plus gold medalists Wyomia Tyus (100m), Bob Beamon (long jump), Al Oerter (discus), Dick Fosbury (high jump), Lee Evans (400m), Madeline Manning Mims (800m), Willie Davenport (110m hurdles), Bob Seagren (pole vault), Randy Matson (shot put), Bill Toomey (decathlon) and the men’s and women’s 4x100m and men’s 4x400m relays.

After the Olympics, Hines joined the Miami Dolphins, who chose him in the sixth round of that year’s NFL Draft to be a wide receiver. He was given the number 99. Hines played in 10 games between 1969 and 1970 for the Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs.

He remains the only person to have played in an NFL regular season game out of the now more than 170 who have broken 10 seconds in the 100m over the last 55 years.

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