France's Noel pips Kristoffersen for Wengen slalom win

France's Clement Noel edged Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen on Sunday to claim a second successive victory in the men's World Cup slalom at Wengen. The Frenchman topped the times in the first leg in sunny conditions at the Swiss resort, ahead of discipline leader Kristoffersen (+0.67) and Austrian Marco Schwarz (+0.73). Noel kept his nerve in the second leg to clock a combined total of 1min 46.43sec, 0.40sec ahead of Kristoffersen, with Russia's Alexander Khoroshilov in third (+0.83). "It's never easy," said Noel. "The first leg was very good but you never know what can happen afterwards. "The weather was more complicated with snowfall during the second leg, less visibility, but you try not to think too much about that. "In the second leg I made some mistakes, it was less good, but in the end it was a perfect day because I won." Noel added: "After Adelboden last week (he fell and failed to finish), where I was left massively disappointed, I reacted quickly. Winning is the best way of rediscovering confidence." Noel's teammate Alexis Pinturault lost his lead of the overall standings to Kristoffersen, the Frenchman joint fourth fastest (+0.99) alongside Switzerland's Ramon Zenhaeusern after the first run, but skiing out on the second. Home skier Daniel Yule, bidding for a third consecutive slalom victory following wins at Madonna di Campiglio and Adelboden, was a distant 12th after the first run and could only make up so much as he finished fifth (+0.90). Two in a row for France's Clement Noel