Snowboard Alpine Europa Cup back in Poland after 18 years

After 18 years, the European Cup in snowboard alpine came back to Poland last weekend on March 4-5. Organised in the Suche Ski resort located just outside of Zakopane, snowboarders competed in two parallel giant slalom competitions. In the first event on Saturday the polish medalists from the FIS Freestyle, Snowboard and Freeski World Championships in Bakuriani - Aleksandra Krol and Oskar Kwiatkowski showed superb riding and took the wins, while the Austrian duo of Martina Ankele and Christoph Karen prevailed on Sunday.

Excellent organisation, great weather and perfect conditions on course made for a perfect background to what was a historic event for polish snowboard alpine scene, with the Europa Cup competition coming back on Polish soil for the first time since 2005. And with more than 80 riders on hand in Poland representing 11 different nations, the event was certainly a highly successful one.

It was an excellent competition on Saturday performed by host nation team, cheered on by numerous Polish fans at the finish line, with some of their World Cup starts motivated to perform well in front of the home crowd. At the end of the day the Polish team took four out of six places on the podium, highlighted by strong wins by their World Championships medallists - Aleksandra Krol and Oskar Kwiatkowski.

“It was wonderful to win the competition on Polish soil with the support and presence of so many fans. I am very happy,” said Krol was happy, "The weather was great, the course was really well prepared and the whole competition went very well. It's great to compete here in Poland. I felt the support of the fans, so I was not stressed very much,” she added.

“My riding was great right from the start. Both the first and second qualifying runs were the fastest, so I started in a beautiful plastron with number one. In direct duels, my riding was also very nice, I was leading with every competitor and in the end I won this competition,” summed up Król with a big smile on her face.

In the women’s competition two up-and-comers from the Polish Snowboard Team - Weronika Dawidek and Olimpia Kwiatkowska - fought in a matchup for third place. In the small final, 17-year-old Dawidek turned out to be slightly better and finished the event in third place.

“I am very happy with this third place. It was a beautiful day, a well-prepared route, and a lot of fans around it, cheering us on," emphasized Dawidek. "You always feel unsatisfied if you don't win a competition, but I'm really happy with this day because it's a podium after all.”

“My riding was really good today. Unfortunately, only the run with the Ukrainian in the semi-final, during which I was riding on the blue track, and earlier I competed on the red track, did not work out, and these tracks were a bit different from each other.”

In the big men's final, Oskar Kwiatkowski defeated the Austrian Aron Juritz, while in the battle for third place, Michał Nowaczyk was better than the German rider Elias Huber.

“I am very happy with this victory and with the fact that these competitions were conducted really well and so many fans came to the slope to see how we race. It was a very pleasant feeling and the fans' support certainly gave us wings,” said Kwiatkowski, “My runs were all smooth and I didn't have any problems on course. I was riding steadily and smoothly. I just enjoyed the ride.”

“I knew I was the favorite here and that stress was there today. For me, however, stress has a motivating effect, because thanks to this I am able to mobilize myself even more to fight in such competitions. At some point, however, I got too excited, but fortunately I found the right balance.”

“I am happy with my performance and with this third place, although I wanted to advance to the grand final and compete with Oscar there, but in the semi-final I made one small mistake that eliminated me from fighting for the final,” summed up Nowaczyk.

With the polish snowboard stars not participating in Sunday’s competition, it was the Austria’s Martina Ankele and Christoph Karen who took the wins, earning a total of four top-3 finishes for the Austrian Team.

Ankele edged out Annamarie Dancha for top spot in the women’s big final, while Cheyenne Loch (GER) finished third after winning her small final matchup against Elisa Fava (ITA).

On the men’s side of things Karner won his big final against his compatriot Matthaeus Pink, while Mykhailo Kharuk (UKR) rounded out the podium in third after winning his small final against Max Kuenhauser (GER).

For full results see HERE.