Winterberg thriller ends individual PSL season
Mar 23, 2019·Alpine Snowboard
Winterberg (GER) - The final individual competition of what has been an exceptional parallel season took to the slopes of Germany’s Winterberg resort on Saturday afternoon, where Patrizia Kummer (SUI) and Lukas Mathies (AUT) took the day’s wins, Julie Zogg (SUI) and Germany’s own Stefan Baumeister claimed the PSL World Cup titles and crystal globes, and Ester Ledecka (CZE) and Andrey Sobolev (RUS) won the season’s biggest trophies as the top athletes of the parallel overall World Cup standings.
With all four of the days crystal globe races still very much in up in the air ahead of the Saturday’s Winterberg competition, and with a full day of head-to-head racing on the excellent Winterberg course set to go down, anticipation was extremely high for the final PSL event of 2018/19. And, with a slew of almost unbelievable storylines playing out over the course of the day, Saturday’s Winterberg event did not disappoint.
First up was the win of Patrizia Kummer, the Sochi 2014 Olympic PGS champion and 15-year World Cup veteran who was considering retirement midway through what was an oftentimes challenging season.
After qualifying in eighth position on Saturday, Kummer upper her game considerably in the finals, most notably in her 1/4 final heat were she dispatched with the always intimidating Ledecka. Then in the big final Kummer matched up against the hometown favourite Selina Joerg (GER) in what was the most epic heat of the day, with Kummer stretching out her hand at the final moment to cross the line ahead of her German competitor by the barest of margins, taking the win by just .01 of a second.
“It was amazing,” Kummer said of her first victory in over two years, “It was a super tight race and I think that’s how snowboard racing should be - tight and fair. I fought so hard for this win, for two years now but also just today. I’m so happy right now…I’m speechless. And It’s so great because I decided two or three weeks ago that I would continue racing next season, so it’s relieving to know that I can still be the fastest girl in the world.”
For Joerg the second-place finish was doubly painful as, had she won the final heat, she would have surpassed Zogg in the PSL standings and taken the globe for Germany.
Instead, the Utah 2019 PSL world champion Zogg would hold to claim her third career globe (two PSL, one overall) despite finishing in 13th place in Saturday’s race, ending the season just 20 points ahead of Joerg with 2,020 points to Joerg’s 2,000.
“It was so crazy,” a relieved Zogg said after awards, “I went out (in the 1/8 finals) by .09 and just thought to myself ‘Uh oh, I lost the globe.’ But then Sabine (Schoeffmann) also didn’t make it to the quarter finals, so I had to just hope that Selina (Joerg) wouldn’t be able to win today. I was so nervous, but I feel great now. And with my world championships win it was a great year for me in slalom, even if not so much in PGS.”
Finally, the 2018/19 parallel overall crystal globe went to the birthday girl Ester Ledecka, giving her a record fourth-straight overall victory - all at just 24 years of age.
With the top qualifying time of the day, Ledecka ensured that all she would have to do was make it to the quarterfinals of Saturday’s competition to guarantee a fifth place finish and remain just out of reach of Joerg, should the German have won the race. Which is, of course, exactly what she did, finishing the season with 5,900 points to Joerg’s 5,619.70.
“I think it was a great day,” Ledecka when asked about her result, “I haven’t had much training in slalom this season - four days, altogether, which is really not enough at all (laughing). I’ve got a lot of things I want to improve on and the girls were doing a great job today, so congrats to Patrizia and Julie.
“It’s my birthday today and my goal was to give myself a gift of the globe, and it really happened, which is awesome. I missed three races this season (to compete in Alpine skiing) and I really wasn’t sure if I would be able to do it this year, so I’m really happy for this.”
Third place in the day’s race went to Ladina Jenny (SUI) to give the Swiss squad a two-podium day, while third place on the ladies’ PSL overall went to Kummer, and third place on the parallel overall final rankings belonged to Schoeffmann.
Mathies takes first victory in five years
Over in the men’s competition the intrigue only intensified, as one key mistake by Italy’s Roland Fischnaller changed not only the course of the race, but quite possibly the parallel overall title battle, as well.
A two-time winner at Winterberg, Fischnaller looked to be locked in a groove on Saturday, winning his 1/8-final heat handily over Alexander Payer before taking what appeared to be another solid win in the quarterfinal over Mathies. However, a video control review revealed that Fischnaller had rode over a stubby during his quarterfinal run, disqualifying him and forcing him to settle for a seventh-place finish.
Had Fischnaller been able to continue on and perhaps claim his third career Winterberg win, he would have also claimed the PSL and men’s parallel overall globes, as Sobolev had been eliminated in the 1/8 finals for a 13-place finish.
Instead, Mathies was allowed to ride on, and the 28-year-old made the most of his second chance, slicing his way to his first victory since 2013/14 - the season he won the PGS and parallel overall crystal globes.
“The last few years were really hard for me,” Mathies said after the awards ceremony, “But I changed my board and set-up last year and found some new motivation for training and racing. This year, it’s been step-by-step. I started the season ranked 32nd, and now I’m the winner of a World Cup. It’s awesome. I never gave up and now I’ve got back to the top.”
Second place on Saturday went to Baumeister, making for two victories that the host German squad just missed out on in Winterberg. Still, that result was enough to give the 25-year-old 2,020 points on the season, moving him ahead of Sobolev’s 1,990 points to the top of the PSL standings, giving him his first career globe and giving the German fans on hand something to celebrate.
“Winterberg is my home World Cup,” said Baumeister, “And they do so much to help us here. To win the globe was my goal this season and I’m very happy to do it here in Germany.”
Despite getting knocked out of top spot on the PSL standings, Sobolev was able to hold on for the overall win, finishing the season with 4,625 points - well clear of second overall Tim Mastnak (SLO) and his tally of 4,116.
“I still can’t believe I won the overall globe,” Sobolev said through translation of his teammate Elizaveta Salikhova, “It’s the most important thing a World Cup athlete can win and I’m extremely excited about this. My season wasn’t the best - in world championships I didn’t do so well and I wasn’t the most consistent, but still to win the overall is amazing.”
Third place on Saturday’s men’s race in Winterberg went to Zan Kosir (SLO), for his second podium of the season, while third place on the men’s PSL standings would end up in the possession of Dario Caviezel of Switzerland. Third place on the men’s overall, meanwhile, would go to Fischnaller, whose day of disappointment still ended with some nice hardware for his efforts.
Action continues in Winterberg tomorrow, where the last FIS Snowboard World Cup competition of 2018/19 will go down at 14:30 CET when the parallel slalom team event takes to the slopes.
QUICK LINKS
Ladies highlight videos BIG FINAL / SMALL FINAL
Men’s highlight videos BIG FINAL / SMALL FINAL
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