Loïc Meillard has to put up with another disappointment in the still young season. He was eliminated in the 2nd run in Gurgl. But the disaster already took its course in the 1st run.
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- Loïc Meillard drops out of the slalom in Gurgl. He has already fallen short of his expectations in the first two races of the season.
- Tanguy Nef narrowly misses out on the first podium finish of his career. He falls back from 2nd to 5th place in the 2nd run, but is still very satisfied.
- Daniel Yule is also satisfied, making up eight places in the 2nd run.
14th at the season opener in Sölden (giant slalom) and 14th in the Levi slalom: Meillard wanted to show in Gurgl that he can do better. Because Meillard wants to have a say in the battle for the overall World Cup this season. In order to have a realistic chance of doing so, he also needs to collect plenty of points in the slalom. In Gurgl, however, he comes away completely empty-handed.
The 29-year-old finished the first run in 20th place, 1.08 seconds behind the leader. In the SRF interview afterwards, he spoke of a "catastrophe". But it doesn't get any better in the 2nd run, Meillard gets stuck and drops out. "It just hurts and it's a shame that it went like that." He will certainly need a few hours to digest it. After that, however, he says: "Chop it off as quickly as possible and focus on America."
Nef and Yule are satisfied
Tanguy Nef was second after the first run and was hoping for the first podium finish of his career. But that came to nothing, Nef finished fifth. Anyone who now assumes that the man from Geneva is dejected is mistaken. He is "completely satisfied", says Nef and says: "Today was not the day for the podium." The first run was "very, very good", in the second he could have attacked even more. Nef didn't make it onto the podium himself, but "two good friends" of his, Frenchman Paco Rassat and Belgian Armand Marchant, finished first and second. "I'm very happy for them," says the 29-year-old.
Daniel Yule was also satisfied after the race, jumping from 19th to 11th place in the second run. "The result is very positive," says Yule and explains: "There were too many mistakes, but the basic speed was there. There were some good sections and I can really build on two runs like that." With a gap of 0.84 seconds, Yule set the ninth-best time in the second run; in the first run, a gap of 0.99 seconds meant 19th place. Yule says: "With a day like today, I can also gain some self-confidence."
