Feller leads Austrian sweep of slalom podium at home with 3rd World Cup win

Manuel Feller led an Austrian sweep of the podium at a men's World Cup slalom Saturday in a race that was interrupted by climate activists.

With five racers still to start their final run, a handful of protesters from the Last Generation movement entered the course in Gurgl, Austria, just behind the finish line and sprinkled an orange-coloured powder on the snow.

The activists were transported out of the finish area by security staff and police, while course workers cleaned the snow before the race resumed eight minutes later.

In a post on social network X, formerly Twitter, Last Generation said the action was a protest against governmental subsidies for fossil fuels.

The same group also protested prior to the previous World Cup race in Austria in October, when they blocked the only mountain road up to the glacier in Soelden as three protesters sat down for about 20 minutes, stopping fans in shuttle busses and cars trying to get to the venue.

WATCH | Feller 1st Austrian to win World Cup race in nearly 2 years:

Feller was not affected by incident and held on to his first-run lead to beat teammate Marco Schwarz by 0.23 seconds in one minute 47.23 seconds, while Michael Matt was 1.05 behind in third (1:48.28) to complete the Austrian triple on the Kirchenkar course, a new venue on the circuit.

Feller earned his third win on the World Cup circuit and ended an Austrian drought in men's slalom. No Austrian skier had won a slalom since Johannes Strolz triumphed in Adelboden in January 2022, a stretch of 17 races.

It was the fourth sweep for the Austrian slalom team in a major race, and the first since Marcel Hirscher, Matt and Schwarz won the medals at the 2019 world championship race in Are, Sweden.

Britain's Dave Ryding