World champ Loic Meillard victorious for 2nd straight day, closes in on season slalom title

World champion Loic Meillard won the season's penultimate men's World Cup slalom Sunday as the Swiss skier boosted his chances of taking the discipline title.

Meillard overcame a big mistake early in his final run and held on to his first-leg lead as he beat Atle Lie McGrath of Norway by 0.21 seconds. Lucas Pinheiro Braathen was 0.47 back in third.

"It was a wild second run with a few mistakes. I just wanted to fully attack, maybe even too much," said Meillard, who also won Saturday's giant slalom on the same hill in Hafjell, Norway. "It's a dream for a tech skier to win both days, GS and slalom, and for it to happen this weekend is pretty amazing."

Meillard's sole previous career World Cup victory in slalom came in Aspen, Colo., a year ago, though he took gold at the worlds in Austria in February.

Calgary's Erik Read and Montreal's Simon Fournier were among 18 athletes to not finish the first run.

Henrik Kristoffersen, who leads the discpline standings, won both the GS and the slalom at the previous tech weekend in Slovenia two weeks ago.

On Sunday, the Norwegian placed fifth and saw his advantage over Meillard reduced to 47 points with only the season-ending race remaining at the World Cup finals in Sun Valley, Idaho on March 27.

WATCH | Meillard takes men's World Cup slalom in Norway:

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Kristoffersen will secure the title if he finishes third or better in that race, regardless of Meillard's result.

"It's still a big gap," Meillard said. "So, he has to fail it a little bit and I have to do something very special like today. So, it's really a nice fight until the end."

The only other racer left with a chance to win the season title is Clement Noel. The Olympic