Joerg and Loginov defend PGS world champs titles in Rogla
Mar 01, 2021·Alpine Snowboard
The highly-anticipated Rogla 2021 FIS Snowboard Alpine World Championships kicked off in a big way on Monday, with Selina Joerg (GER) and Dmitry Loginov (RSF) writing history by defending their parallel giant slalom titles after an exciting day of racing.
Due to the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic earlier in the season and measures implemented by the Chinese health authorities and government, the originally scheduled FIS Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski World Championships in Zhangjiakou (CHN) had to be cancelled back in December. However, the disappointment of that news has been essentially wiped away since the New Year, as organisers including Idre Fjall, Aspen (USA) and of course Rogla have stepped up as last-minute hosts for World Championships competition at their venues.
And once again the local organising committee in Rogla rose to the occasion with a highly dedicated team of staff and volunteers working tirelessly to deliver a top-notch course and competition venue. With Mature Nature also playing along and providing perfect weather and snow conditions, and with over 140 athletes on hand hungry to showcase their best riding at the season’s biggest competition, the Rogla 2021 World Championships PGS race was without a doubt the one that will be remembered for a long time.
In the women’s competition it was Selina Joerg, who was on a mission all day long, as the 33 year-old German rider defended her World Championships title from two years ago in Park City and claimed her career’s second gold medal. Worth noting is the fact that with the win on Monday Joerg became the first woman in 18 years to successfully defend a World Championships title.
On Monday Joerg put down the third fastest time in the qualification round, before storming through her finals heats in some tough match-ups against the likes of Aleksandra Krol (POL), Tomaka Takeuchi (JPN) and the most experienced rider on tour Claudia Riegler (AUT) on her way to the big final, where she met the young gun Sofia Nadryshina (RSF) in the big final.
Joerg did not get out to her best start in the big final, losing ground to Nadyrshina early on and finding herself 0.48 seconds back at the second intermediate time. The German rider would not quit, however, digging into her long history of big-event experience to steadily close the gap through the bottom half of the course and overtake Nadyrshina with just two gates to go before the finish line.
“This is just amazing,” said Joerg after the awards ceremony, “I never thought I could do it again, but in the morning the qualifications went down pretty good and then in the finals I changed my strategy a little bit on how to go around the gates and it looks like it was just the right decision for today. I’m just very happy to be back on the podium.”
With Joerg finishing on top of the podium, consequently Nadyrshina wrapped up her day in second place, continuing an incredible breakout season and earning the most important podium thus far in her young career. With two World Cup victories, three Junior World Championships gold medals, and the Rogla 2021 World Championships silver medal, the 17 year-old Nadyrshina is having what can only be described as outstanding sophomore season of top-level snowboard racing.
Julia Dujmovits (AUT) rounded out the women’s podium in third place, besting her teammate Claudia Riegler in the small final match-up. While it was the third top-3 of her career for Dujmovits at the World Championships, nevertheless the Austrian’s podium place came as something of surprise, as she only just came out of retirement at the start of this season, only to miss the majority of the 2020/21 events thus far with an injury. However, on Monday the Sochi 2014 Olympic gold medallist looked back to her world-class form on her way to the bronze medal.
Over on the men’s side of the event it was Dmitry Loginov who followed the example of Joerg by stepping up to defend his PGS World Championships title - while doing so in extraordinary fashion in an incredibly tight big final showdown.
The path to his career’s third World Championships medal was not an easy one, as he also faced some heavy competition from the likes of Andreas Prommegger (AUT), Aaron March (ITA) his RSF teammate Andrey Sobolev, before finally squaring up against the legend Roland Fischnaller (ITA) in the big final.
That big final is definitely one to remember, with the youth and explosives of Loginov facing off against the decades of experience of Fischnaller, who entered his first World Championships competition one week before Loginov celebrated his first birthday, back in 2001.
After a full day of hard-fought heats in Rogla, the men’s big final was the tightest of them all, with Fischnaller and Loginov going head-to-head and toe-to-toe for the entire length of the course, before Loginov was able to out-stretch Fischnaller at the finish line to earn his second-straight PGS World Championships gold medal by just .01 seconds.
“I’m super happy to defend my PGS title,” said Loginov through a translator, “I honestly don’t know how it happened, but I love competing in Rogla and I love the slope here. Thank you to everyone who made this incredible event happen today and big, big thanks to my coaches and all people that support me everyday.”
Back in 2019 a then 19 year-old Loginov became the first rider to simultaneously own Junior World Championships and World Snowboard Championships gold medals in both PSL and PGS events, as well as becoming the youngest-ever PGS World Champion.
Now 21 years old, Loginov on Monday was able to once again rise to the occasion in the most high-pressure of situations, as he became the youngest 3x gold medallist in the history of the FIS Snowboard Alpine World Championships. And, if he can also defend his PSL title on Tuesday, he will become the first snowboarder in world champs history to put down back-to-back double gold medal performances.
With his silver medal performance, Fischnaller earned his career’s sixth World Championships podium, moving him into sole possession of third place all-time on the FIS Snowboard world champs podium rankings.
Loginov’s teammate from Russian Snowboard Federation Andrey Sobolev snagged the World Championships bronze medal after besting Sangkyum Kim of Korea in the men’s small final matchup. With a third place on the day, the 2015 World Champion from Lachtal claimed his fourth World Championships medal.
The FIS Snowboard Alpine World Championships action continues tomorrow with parallel slalom event. The qualification are slated to go down at 9:00 CET with finals following up in the afternoon at 14:45.
WATCH LIVE
Tuesday - PSL
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Live streaming will also be available on our Youtube channel here: PSL. Please note that due to broadcasting rights restrictions, live streaming may not be available in your region. Full list of countries with the live streaming available can be found HERE.
QUICK LINKS
Rogla World Championships data page (startlists, results, live-timing)
Livestream: PSL
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