Austrian team takes it all in Bad Gastein
Jan 11, 2022·Alpine Snowboard
An amazing first day of racing at the FIS Snowboard Alpine World Cup went down on Tuesday evening in Bad Gastein, where the Austrian Snowboard Team took almost everything there was up for grabs. Daniela Ulbing reached for her second top spot of the season, while Arvid Auner stormed to his career’s first victory, leading an extraordinary podium sweep for the Austrian men’s team along the way.
Following afternoon’s qualification the Austrian Snowboard team was in a perfect spot to start the first of back-to-back competitions on a high, putting as many as three women and six men through into finals. The chances for success on home soil increased substantially in quarter-finals, where Austrians represented as many as 50% of all athletes remaining in the contest. Not long after, it was more than certain that Austrians will finish with more than one podium after they clinched all four semi-finals spots over on the men’s side.
Leading a one-team show for Austria was Arid Auner, who probably couldn’t imagine his first World Cup victory coming in better circumstances as it all played out on Tuesday. With only two World Cup podiums to his record up to this point, Auner upset all the favourites in a heroic fashion, winning some exciting matchups, including his controversial finish line crash in the semis against Lukas Mathies.
Then in the big final Auner managed to come victorious against his another teammate and the reining PSL World Champion Benjamin Karl in an exciting super final heat. Qualifying with just 15th fastest time, Auner saved his best for the evening finals, where he confidently raced to his career’s best result.
To make things even more exciting is the fact that with his third placed finish in December and now a top spot, Auner took over the lead over in the PSL ranking and snagged the World Cup yellow bib in the process. All that in front of enthusiastic home fans at the iconic race slope in Bad Gastein. It rarely goes batter than this….
Despite losing to his younger teammate in the final, Benjamin Karl came with his best performance so far in the season, and his first podium since 2021 World Championships in Rogla.
Completing the Austrian podium sweep was Alexander Payer, who won the battle for third place in an extremely tight race against Lukas Mathies.
Over on the women’s side things were equally exciting, with many tight heats and some unexpected results taking place all evening long. In the end it was Daniela Ulbing, who secured her second victory of the season, as well as her second victory on the venue in Bad Gastein. Ulbing, who won here back in 2017 continues to impress this season, and the competition on Tuesday were the prime example of her excellent form lately.
Ulbing started the day by setting the fastest time already in qualifications, and then steadily climbed her way through the finals brackets, by besting some really tought competition in the likes of Michelle Dekker (NED), Miki Tsubaki (JPN), and her teammate Julia Dujmovits before reaching the big final.
There, in the big final Ulbing faced Ramona Theresia Hofmeister, but right in the first gate she caught an edge and went sideways, losing speed and leading position. Luckily for the Austrian rider, also Hofmeister came across huge problems almost at the exact times and basically stoped at the second gate. Out of the final duo it was Ulbing, who managed to recover faster, leaving Hofmeister far behind and cruising down to the finish line. And, while Hofmeister did her best to catch her rival, the time gap this time was too big to stop Ulbing from winning the competition.
With her victory on Tuesday, also Ulbing moved up in the World Cup PSL ranking straight into first place, that she is now sharing with Julie Zogg (SUI), with both athletes having 145 points after two competitions in the season so far.
Second place on the day for Hofmeister was her third top-3 finish, but surprisingly the reining PGS and parallel overall champion has yet to win a competition in 2021/22.
Natalia Soboleva won the small final matchup against Julia Dujmovits for her first World Cup podium since 2020.
The parallel slalom extravaganza in Bad Gastein continues on Wednesday with the first mixed team competition of the season set to go down at 13:00 CET.
QUICK LINSK:
Bad Gastein FIS data page (start lists, live-scoring, results)
