PGS World Cup season wraps up in Blue Mountain

Mar 02, 2020·Alpine Snowboard

The final FIS Snowboard Alpine PGS World Cup race of the season went down on Sunday to wrap up an exciting weekend of top-tier snowboard racing action at the Alpine Snow TKO event in Blue Mountain. Germany’s Ramona Theresia Hofmeister and Russia’s Dmitry Loginov took the top spots in respective women’s and men’s competitions, with Hofmeister and Italy’s Roland Fischnaller claiming the season’s top World Cup honours by taking home the PGS crystal globes.

Perfect weather and a demanding course allowed the sport’s best to shine in second of back-to-back competitions this weekend, and with plenty of tight heats through out the day, the event in Blue Mountain concluded another highly entertaining PGS World Cup season on a high note.

In the women’s competition Hofmeister claimed her second victory this weekend in Blue Mountain, which also was her eight top spot in World Cup this season. Hofmeister edged out the likes of Miki Tsubaki (JPN), Gong Naiying (CHN) and Sabine Schoeffmann before facing Sofia Nadyrshina (RUS) in the big final.

Despite an explosive start from the Russian rider, it was Hofmeister, who came victorious from the big final duel, after Nadyrshina slipped on her backside turn just a couple of gates before the finish line. Hofmeister quickly rode past Nadyrshina and crossed the line in first place to complete her dominant PGS campaign with yet another impressive victory.

With the Sunday’s event acting as the final PGS event of the season, Hofmeister was awarded with the FIS Snowboard Alpine World Cup crystal globe for winning the parallel giant slalom classification. In nine PGS races in 2019/20, 23-year-old Hofmeister recorded five victories and one runner-up position, missing the podium only once with her fourth place finish in PyeongChang (KOR) last week.

The German riders finished the PGS season with 6300 points, with her teammate Selina Joerg following up in second place with 3190 points, and Ladina Jenny of Switzerland rounding out the 2019/20 PGS podium in third place with 3070 points.

“Wow, I just can’t believe it”, said Hofmeister, “This weekend was so amazing, and it’s an incredible feeling to hold my first globe. I’m very excited to take it home tomorrow. It’s a dream come true.”

Nadyrshina finished the day in second place for her second top-3 finish in 2019/20, while Selina Joerg completed the women’s podium in third place, after holding off Austria’s Sabine Schoeffmann in the small final.

Over on the men’s side, Dmitriy Loginov was on a mission, stepping it up on Sunday and confidently racing to his first victory of the season, while facing some tough matchups against Sebastian Kislinger (AUT), Vic Wild (RUS), Edwin Coratti (ITA), and finally Stefan Baumeister (GER).

In the big final it was Baumeister, who was leading the way through almost the entire race, before he made a small, but very costly mistake in the bottom part of the course. The German rider came a little too wide in the penultimate gate, lost the speed and left the door wide open for Loginov to pass him in the final meters and take the win by just a 0.17 sec.

In the end Baumeister had to settle for second place, while Italy’s Edwin Coratti rounded out the men’s podium in third place, while taking the win against USA’s Robert Burns in the small final.

The men’s PGS World Cup title was awarded to Italy’s Rolland Fischnaller, who secured his crystal globe already last week in PyoengChang (KOR). The 39-year-old Fischnaller added his first PGS World Cup crystal globe to his impressive record of achievements, including three PSL and one overall title that the Italian veteran managed to win in 23 years since his debut on the FIS Snowboard World Cup tour back in 1997.

“I’m feeling very special today,” said Fischnaller, “Exactly on this day 23 years ago I competed in my first World Cup race in Olang (ITA), and today my 3-year-old son did his first snowboard race.”

“Since the beginning of the season I tried to push hard in PGS and now I’m here winning the small globe for PGS. It’s a very special day for me.”

In 2019/20 Fischnaller won three PGS races and gathered a total tally of 4900 points. Austria’s Benjamin Karl finished the PGS World Cup season in second place with 3380 points, while Dmitry Loginov jumped into top-3 with 2882 points following his Sunday’s victory.

Following a double World Cup weekend in Blue Mountain, both Hofmeister and Fischnaller also secured the parallel overall titles that take into account athletes’ performance on both PGS and PSL tours. The duo will be awarded with the FIS Snowboard Alpine big crystal globes at the final competition of season in Winterberg (GER) in two weeks time.

With the PGS season in the books now, the FIS Snowboard Alpine World Cup tour will now move on to Livingo (ITA), where the penultimate PSL race of the 2019/20 World Cup campaign is scheduled to go down on Tuesday, March 10.

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