Germany’s Felix Neureuther produced a clinical second run to claim his first World Cup slalom victory of the season in Japan yesterday.
The 31-year-old Bavarian clocked 59.96 seconds in the afternoon for a combined time of one minute, 50.93 seconds, edging out Sweden’s Andre Myhrer  by just five hundredths. Austrian Marco Schwarz was third in 1:51.17.
It was Neureuther’s 12th career World Cup victory, 10 of them coming in his specialist slalom discipline.
Henrik Kristoffersen’s hot streak of four successive wins was snapped as the Norwegian could only finish seventh in 1:51.63 but still increased his lead at the top of the slalom World Cup standings.
Kristoffersen improved to 716 points while his nearest rival, Austria’s Marcel Hirscher, was disqualified after straddling a gate on the upper part of the course, leaving him with 500. Neureuther has 323 points.
Germany’s Fritz Dopfer, who led after the first run as he had in Saturday’s giant slalom, took fourth just under half a second behind Neureuther’s combined time.
Hirscher saw his advantage in the overall World Cup standings cut after yesterday’s race.
The Austrian still leads with 1,045 but Kristoffersen now has 957, with fellow Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal on 916.