THIS IS A FIRST-RUN STORY. READ FULL RACE STORY HERE.

FLACHAU, Austria — Austrian skier Johannes Strolz mastered a tricky slalom course Wednesday to finish nearly a second ahead of the field in the first run of a World Cup night race.

The Olympic slalom silver medalist found the fastest way through the final gates coming off a section that caused problems to many of his rivals.

Strolz finished 0.97 seconds ahead of Atle Lie McGrath of Norway, with Olympic champion Clément Noël of France three-hundredths further back in third.

Strolz dropped off the Austrian team last year but is having a breakthrough season, winning his first World Cup race in January and three Olympic medals last month, including gold in the combined and team events.

Slalom World Cup leader Henrik Kristoffersen was the first starter and misjudged the tricky passage near the end of the course and nearly skied out.

He ended up finishing 2.67 seconds behind Strolz and just qualified for the second run in 28th position, as only the 30 fastest skiers are allowed to start in the second run.

Kristoffersen won back-to-back races in Germany last week to go top of the season standings. His closest rival, Norwegian teammate Lucas Braathen, was 1.33 behind in 11th in Wednesday’s race.

Luke Winters, who is sitting in 18th place, was the only American to qualify for a second run.

Britain’s Dave Ryding, who is third in the standings, trailed Strolz by 1.09 in fifth.

The race was the 329th and last in the 19-year-long World Cup career of Manfred Mölgg.

The Italian veteran, who turns 40 in June, clicked out of one ski at the end of his run and slid over the finish on his other ski while waving to the spectators.

Mölgg won three World Cup races, all in slalom, and racked up 20 podium results between 2004 and 2017.

He took the globe for the best slalom skier in the 2007-08 season, and won medals at three different world championships, including silver in slalom in 2007.

Flachau is an annual stop on the women’s circuit but is stepping in to host a men’s event for the second straight season.

The race replaced a slalom from early January that was called off after 19 starters due to bad course conditions in Zagreb.