Penultimate PGS World Cup in Kayseri

One week after racing for Gold, Silver and Bronze at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games, the world's best alpine snowboarders will compete in the penultimate parallel giant slalom race of the 2017-18 FIS Snowboard World Cup season which will be staged in Kayseri, Turkey on 3 March 2018.

However, with only two more PGS events to come this winter, the race for the crystal globes has been decided already due to health problems of the World Cup leader' main rivals.

In the men's event, Olympic Champion Nevin Galmarini has earned his career's World Cup title as his strongest pursuer two-time World Champion Andreas Prommegger (AUT) has just announced to sit out the Turkey race due to problems with his lumbar vertebrae.

“The pain appeared for the first time right prior to the Olympics and is currently spreading to my left leg. It's nothing serious but I decided to take a short break in order to come back stronger for the last races in Scuol (PGS) and Winterberg (PSL),” said Prommegger who will most likely lose his runner-up position in the PGS World Cup standings.

At the moment, last year's Kayseri winner Prommegger has accumulated 2,780 points and therefore just a little bit more than his teammate Alexander Payer (AUT; 2,560), Radoslav Yankov (BUL; 2,510), Edwin Coratti (ITA; 2,458), Benjamin Karl (AUT; 2,430), Roland Fischnaller (ITA; 2,316), Sylvain Dufour (FRA; 2,290) and Andrey Sobolev (RUS; 2,256).

On the women's side of things, PyeongChang Gold medallist Ester Ledecka is also safe on her way to secure her career's fourth World Cup title.

The Czech multi sport talent has locked in a total of 5,450 points so far and actually has just to drop in once to successfully keep hold on the title as Olympic Bronze medallist Ramona Hofmeister (GER; 3,910) is forced to skip the race due to a flew.

And as PyeongChang runner-up Selina Joerg (GER; 3,520) and Julia Dujmovits (AUT; 3,500) are already far behind, both would have to celebrate back-to-back wins to keep a theoretical title chance alive.

But as the 22-year-old from Prague, who triumphed on the Kültepe slope last winter, is literally racing the season of her life having won five of six PGS starts this winter, the battle for second and third in the ranking is – just like on the men's side – the more interesting one.

Especially as Russia's top aces Alena Zavarzina (2,630) and Ekaterina Tudegesheva (2,320) aren't too far behind to throw their hats in the ring.

The qualifiers of the 2017-18 World Cup season's eighth PGS event are scheduled for 3 March 2018 at 10:00 (8:00 CET). Finals will start on the same day at 15:00 (13:00 CET).

Live timing links can be found here.

Live TV information is available here.