Samkova and Haemmerle keep momentum in Moscow

Eva Samkova (CZE) and Alessandro Haemmerle (AUT) are the riders of the hour. After winning the SBX race in La Molina last weekend, both athletes kept the moment to also storm to victory in this season's penultimate stop of the FIS SBX World Cup tour.

While Samkova and Haemmerle were able to triumph in the first ever in-city SBX race which was staged under the lights in the Moscow based Lata Park, Michela Moioli (ITA) and Pierre Vaultier (FRA) were able to decide the race for the title in Russia, too, with only one more event to come next weekend.

However, the sprint event in front of an unique and urban scenery took a bit longer than expected as technical problems with the start gate led to several problems in the women's final.

After the first try to send the six female finalists down the 350 metres long sprint track west of Moscow had been stopped right away after Samkova, Nelly Moenne Loccoz (FRA) and Lara Casanova (SUI) couldn't drop in at all, the final heat of the ladies's event got underway in the second try.

But the French team filed an official protest criticising another gate malfunction which in the end led to a jury decision to race the women's final heat one more time and after the men's price giving ceremony had already been taken place.

Samkova, the 2014 Olympic Champion and 2018 Bronze medallist who had come out successful of the women's final, therefore had to prove some nerves of steel being forced to go up again to the start.

“I won the first race, and there was nothing to complain about for me. You don't want to do a re-run when you won. But the girls were totally right to ask for a re-run. The decision took a while. When we went up again, I wanted to prove everybody that I was the best. I'm really happy that I did it,” she said after the third try was finally in the books.

Samkova earned her career's 10th in the Moscow snow flurry ahead of Moenne Loccoz who had missed the podium in the first run but was mainly involved in the protest.

“It's been a tough day. The jury made the right decision. Us three girls from France pushed a lot for the re-run. I don't care about today's result, it was important for our sport to be fair,” Moenne Loccoz explained.

Olympic Champion Michela Moioli (ITA) rounded out the podium in third and therefore just saved enough points to already lock in her career's second title before flying to Switzerland for the season's finals next weekend.

While the women's final saw some technical issues, the men's main event went down without any problems.

Haemmerle quickly took over the lead on the 350 metres long course to bring home his career's sixth.

“It was another great race today. I'm extremely happy to having been able to repeat my win from La Molina. I felt pretty good today, I did well in the qualifiers and had good starts which was key to success today.”

Olympic Champion Pierre Vaultier (FRA) came in second bringing home the points he needed to add another crystal globe to his trophy cabinet.

Omar Visintin (ITA) rounded out the podium as third.

The FIS SBX World Cup tour will continue tomorrow with the third of four team events with the finals kicking off at 11:30 (9:30 CET).

Results