Parallel slalom and PSL team events set to open 2019 in Bad Gastein (AUT)
Jan 07, 2019·Alpine Snowboard
Bad Gastein (AUT) - The FIS Snowboard World Cup is ready to kick off the new year at the most historic venue on tour this week, as the men and ladies of alpine snowboarding get ready to pull out of the gate for a pair of parallel slalom competitions at Austria’s Bad Gastein, with the PSL individual event taking place on Tuesday evening, and the team PSL competition taking place on Wednesday afternoon.
Tuesday’s competition will begin with qualifications at 14:30, followed by nighttime finals which will begin at 18:45. Wednesday’s team PSL competition, meanwhile, will begin at 13:00.
The 2018/19 season marks the 19th-straight year that the FIS Snowboard World Cup has visited Bad Gastein’s slopes, with a total of 59 competitions held at the resort over those 19 years in men’s and ladies PSL and snowboard cross, and PSL team events.
The FIS alpine snowboard season opened with a pair of December parallel giant slalom competitions in Italy, as the annual Carezza and Cortina double-header started things off on a high with some exciting racing going down at both events.
Coming off the Italian races the ladies’ parallel World Cup leader is Ester Ledecka (CZE), the three-time reigning crystal globe winner and PyeongChang 2018 Olympic gold medallist.
After spending the first half of December competing on the FIS Alpine World Cup, Ledecka made a seamless transition back over to FIS Snowboard competition, taking a runner-up result behind Italy’s Nadya Ochner in the season-opener in Carezza before climbing back to the top of the podium with a dominant win on a tough track in Cortina.
However, due to an unspecified injury Ledecka will not be competing in Bad Gastien this week, leaving competition wide open for the rest of the field at a venue where predictions are extremely difficult to make.
The reason predictions are so hard in Bad Gastein is because it has proven to be a tough challenge to all throughout its history as a World Cup venue, with only one athlete having more than one victory on the slope in the last 19 seasons.
That athlete is Patricia Kummer (SUI), who won three in a row at Bad Gastein in 2012/13 and 2013/14. Kummer, though, is coming off a difficult World Cup season last year where she finished 18th overall, and she will have to return to her exceptional form of years past if she’d like to add to her podium count in Austria.
Last season Ramona Hofmeister (GER) took the ladies’ victory, and she could be one to watch again this year after claiming a third-place finish in Carezza in December despite having only one week of on-snow training in the lead-up to that race due to injury. Others to watch include Ochner, who earned a sixth place result in Cortina after her win in Carezza and looks to be in good form, while Austria’s own Sabine Schoeffmann landed on the podium in third at Cortina and has two previous Bad Gastein podium results to her credit.
Over on the men’s side of things it’s veteran Austrian racer Benny Karl currently sitting atop the standings in the early going of what is his 15th career World Cup campaign, after finishing second in Carezza and third in Cortina. Though Karl hasn’t stepped onto the individual podium at Bad Gastein since he won the event back in 2010/11, he did win the team event with Daniella Ulbing in 2017 (the year she also won the individual competition here) and, with his strong results in December, Karl has shown so for this year that he’s still a force to be reckoned with on the FIS Snowboard World Cup.
Other threats on the men’s side include Roland Fischnaller (ITA), who took a gutsy win in front of his home fans in Cortina and has a win and two runner-up results in Bad Gastein in his career, as well as Dmitry Loginov (RUS), the reigning PSL and PGS junior world champion who counts a win last season at Bad Gastein as one of his two career World Cup podiums, and Andreas Promegger (AUT), the most decorated Austrian men’s racer competing this week at Bad Gastein with three career podiums here, including a win back in 2013.
Wednesday will see the team PSL competition taking place, where the host Austrians come into this year’s competition having won all of the previous three team events to take place at Bad Gastein. With so many talented riders on the home team’s roster the Austrians have the chance to score more than one podium in the team event, and it will be up to the likes of the the Swiss, Russians, or Italians to stop them.
Watch live on ORF (check local listings for other broadcasters)
QUICK LINKS:
Bad Gastein data page (programme, start lists/extended start lists, live timing, results)
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