Ulbing and Karl win parallel slalom team event in Piancavallo
Mar 13, 2022·Alpine Snowboard
The third parallel mixed team competition of the 2021/22 season took place on Sunday to wrap up a highly successful weekend of the FIS Snowboard Alpine World Cup action in Piancavallo (ITA).
Straight from Saturday’s individual PSL event that saw Julie Zogg (SUI) and Marc Hofer (ITA) walk away with big wins, the world’s best athletes were back in racing mode on Sunday for what was another prime display of top-level snowboarding in a thrilling team competition format.
And after another intensive day of racing on the challenging slope in Piancavallo, it was Daniela Ulbing and Benjamin Karl of Austria, who stormed their way through to snag their first victory of the season, which also was third top spot for the Austrian Snowboard Team in parallel team competitions in 2021/22.
Ulbing and Karl won their races against the likes of Italy’s Jasmin Coratti and Gabriel Messner, Switzerland’s Ladina Jenny and Nevin Galmarini before winning the semi-final heat against their compatriots Sabine Schoeffmann and Alexander Payer by the smallest of margins of 0.02 sec. Despite a superb ride from Payer who crossed the line with over 0.17 advantage over Karl, it was Ulbing who took control of the latter half of the race as she managed to close the gap and secure a place for her and Karl in the big final.
Once there Ulbing and Karl, who won the respective Olympic silver and gold medals in Beijing, faced the Italian duo of yesterday’s runner-up in the individual competition Edwin Coratti and Nadya Ochner. And once again it was Ulbing, who had to give her best after Coratti finished the men’s part 0.17 ahead of Karl. Ulbling, hower, was really on another level on Sunday, quickly catching Ochner and soon after she was confidently leading the race for another huge win for the Austrian team.
Ochner and Coratti finished the race in second place, which was the second time Coratti found himself on the podium this weekend, while Ochner scored her second top-3 finish in parallel team event on the slope in Piancavallo, after also coming in second with Daniele Bagozza back in 2020.
Third place on the day went to another Austrian team of Sabine Schoeffmann and Alexander Payer, who won their small final race against Italy’s Lucia Dalmasso and yesterday’s winner Marc Hofer.
With a third place on the day, however, Schoeffmann and Payer managed to jump into first place in the overall parallel team standings, and with one race left in the season, they’re leading all-Austrian 1-2-3 with 200 points. Julia Dujmovits and Arvid Auner now dropped to second with 190 points, with Karl and Ulbing rounding out top-3 with 155 points.
The FIS Snowboard Alpine World Cup now travels to Rogla for the final PGS competition of the season on Wednesday, March 16, before we wrap things up for 2021/22 next weekend, March 19-20, with parallel slalom and parallel slalom team competition in Berchtesgaden (GER).
QUICK LINKS
Piancavallo World Cup FIS data page (start lists, results, etc.)
Full results: TEAM EVENT
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