Germany on top in Bad Gastein’s PSL team event
Jan 15, 2020·Snowboard Alpine
Straight from a fantastic night of parallel slalom World Cup racing on Tuesday, the first PSL mixed team competition of the 2019/20 season was on the menu on Wednesday, at day 2 of the 20th anniversary of FIS Snowboard Alpine World Cup event at the iconic Bad Gastein (AUT) venue.
Once again the conditions were just perfect in Austria, with blue-bird skies and good firm snow providing a perfect setting for what was a prime display of top-level snowboard racing in an exciting team format competition.
At the end of the day it was Germany’s Ramona Theresia Hofmeister and Stefan Baumeister standing on top of the podium, as the team who came into the competition wearing the number one bibs would live up to their number, taking an impressive victory to wrap up a strong performance for the German Snowboard Team in Bad Gastein.
In the big final while against local fans’ favourites Claudia Riegler and Andreas Prommegger, the German duo proved that they are in an excellent form right now. Carrying momentum from her previous night’s win, Hofmeister stormed through the course gaining as much as 1.40 second over Riegler and leaving Baumeister with a relatively easy task of keeping the advantage until the finish line during his run. Despite all the efforts from Prommegger, Baumeister kept it cool through his run to cross the line well ahead of his Austrian counterpart for a huge win for the German team.
“I have no words to describe my feelings now,” said Hoffmeister, “It’s just amazing to win again and today with Stefan in the first team event of the season.”
“It’s a perfect day,” followed up Baumeister, “We had a perfect slope with perfect snow today and I think that Bad Gastein is my favourite location on tour, so I hope we’ll come back here also next year.”
With the win on Wednesday Hofmeister took her fifth consecutive World Cup victory of the season, now having at least one victory in each of the snowboard parallel disciplines - PGS, PSL and PSL Team. Also Baumeister impressed with his riding in Austria, with a third-place finish in Tuesday’s individual competition to go along with Wednesday’s team win.
Riegler and Prommegger finished the competition in second place, pleasing the local fans with a strong performance on home venue in Bad Gastein.
Switzerland’s Julie Zogg and Dario Caviezel rounded out the podium in third place, besting Italy’s Nadya Ochner and Daniele Bagozza. The small final heat was intense with both teams going head to head until Tuesday’s men’s winner Bagozza made a mistake in the middle section, which resulted in Caviezel puling ahead and taking the third-place finish for the Swiss.
While celebrating the 20th anniversary of the World Cup event in Bad Gastein, Franz Weiss the Secretary General of the Organising Committee, who was the driving force for the Austrian event in last two decades, announced that he will be stepping down from his position. Weiss is leaving behind him a huge legacy of the longest-running competition of any of the entire FIS Snowboard World Cup, and we hope that there will many more events in Bad Gastein to come in the future.
Leaving Bad Gastein after two fantastic back-to-back competitions, the FIS Snowboard Alpine World Cup will now travel to Rolga (SLO), where PGS competition is scheduled to take place on Sauturday, January 18 at 13:00 CET.
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