2018 Junior Snowboard World Championships ready to start in Cardrona
Aug 31, 2018·Alpine Snowboard
Cardrona (NZL) - The final competitions of the 2018/19 FIS Snowboard season are finally upon us with the FIS Junior Freestyle Ski & Snowboard World Championships set to take to the slopes of New Zealand’s Cardrona Mountain Resort from 24 August to 8 September, 2018.
The 2018 edition of the FIS Junior Snowboard World Championships will be just the second time the event has been held south of the equator, after New Zealand’s Otaga resort hosted the full slate of competitions back in 2010. With big air, halfpipe, slopestyle, snowboard cross, snowboard cross team, parallel slalom, and parallel giant slalom competitions all set to hit the venues in Cardrona over a two-week time period, and the added excitement of the 2018 JWCs being part of the wide-ranging Audi quattro Winter Games New Zealand program, all the pieces are in place for the official end of the 2017/18 season to be a thrilling one.
A huge slate of the world’s best young snowboarders will be on hand in Cardrona, with nearly 300 athletes scheduled to compete for medals and representing nations from Hungary to Korea, Canada to the Czech Republic, Great Britain to Lithuania, and dozens of others in between. Competing athletes will have been born during the period from 1998-2002 for the snowboard cross and parallel events, while for the big air, halfpipe, and slopestyle events athletes must have been born during the period from 2000-2004.
The FIS Junior Snowboard World Championships have been a jumping-off point for successful careers for a dazzling array of athletes over the years, and the 2017 competitions were a perfect example, with snowboard cross athlete Julia Pereira (FRA) taking bronze at the JWCs only to go on to claim silver at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Korea.
The biggest name in this year’s competition will be none other than New Zealand’s own Zoi Sadowski Synnott, as the 17-year-old comes into Cardrona fresh off becoming just the second-ever Winter Olympic Games medallist for her nation by claiming bronze at the inaugural Olympic big air competition at PyeongChang.
Like Sadowski Synnott, many of the young riders competing in Cardrona have already made names for themselves on the FIS Snowboard World Cup and at other elite-level competitions, and will be looking to add the title of “Junior World Champion” to their CVs over the coming weeks. However, to do that the challengers will have to go through a list of returning medallists from the 2017 JWCs competitions that is long and impressive.
RETURNING 2017 MEDALLISTS
MEN:
Enzo Valax (FRA) - BA bronze
Judd Henkes (USA) - SS silver
Hyeon-Min Cho (KOR) - HP gold
Toby Miller (USA) - HP bronze
Leon Beckhaus (GER) - SBX silver
Dmitry Loginov (RUS) - PGS silver, PSL silver
Ilia Vitugov (RUS) - PSL gold
LADIES:
Berenice Wicki (SUI) - HP gold
Leilani Ettel (GER) - HP bronze
Jana Fischer (GER) - SBX silver
Milena Bykova (RUS) - PGS gold
Daniela Ulbing (AUT) - PGS silver, PSL bronze
Jamima Juritz (AUT) - PSL gold
Maria Valova (RUS) - PSL bronze
Action begins on 25 August with the big air finals, followed by snowboard cross on 27 August, SBX team on 28 August, slopestyle on 31 August, halfpipe on 4 September, parallel giant slalom 5 August, and parallel slalom closing out the snowboard portion of the Cardrona 2018 Junior Snowboard World Championships. The final event of the Audi quattro Winter Games NZ will be the FIS Snowboard big air World Cup competition - the first World Cup of the 2018/19 season - which will take place on September 8, 2018.
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