Bankes and Eguibar crowned SBX World Champions 2021
Feb 11, 2021·Snowboard Cross
An incredible display of riding went down on Thursday at one of the biggest and baddest cross courses in the world, as the Idre Fjall 2021 Snowboard Cross World Championships took to the chilly Swedish venue where Charlotte Bankes of Great Britain and Spain’s Lucas Eguibar won the battle for the gold medals with their incredible performances on Swedish soil.
Bankes dominant on Idre course
The big final of the day on the women’s side saw four of the sport’s biggest names squaring off against each other in the battle for gold, with Bankes lined up against Michela Moioli (ITA), Eva Samkova (CZE) and Belle Brockhoff (AUS) in the start gates.
The defending World Champion from 2019, Eva Samkova grabbed the hole shot out of the gate and was able to quickly position herself into the lead, with Brockhoff and top qualifier Bankes sitting neck-and-neck in second and third position, while 2018 Olympic Champion Moioli fell back into fourth.
It was then Bankes who was able to take advantage of some good technique through one of the banked turns to gain enough speed to overtake the Aussie Brockhoff, moving into second and looking for an opening to overtake Samkova.
Gaining more speed after one of the jumps and turning into the next bank of the course, the British athlete overtook Samkova on the next opportunity and pulled into the lead at the top of the big final straightaway of the Idre Fjall course, with Brockhoff following Bankes past Samkova into second, and the defending World Champion Samkova in third.
Still back in fourth, Moioli seemed to struggle throughout the heat until Bankes, sitting in the lead, nearly lost balance at the bottom roller section, causing her to sketch out of her line slightly and causing Brockhoff to throw on the brakes and slip out, taking the Australian out of the battle for the World Championship medals.
Bankes, meanwhile, was somehow able to prevent a fall, maintain her speed, and remain in the lead.
It was on the last few metres of the last roller section where Moioli was able to pass Samkova and even close in on Bankes’s tail in going for gold, but in the end, it was Bankes who would hold on to cross the finish line in first place to earn the gold medal and the crown of World Champion 2021. In the process, Bankes made some history, becoming the first British athlete ever to win a FIS Snowboard Cross World Championships gold medal.
“It feels pretty amazing!” Bankes smiled from the Idre Fjall finish area, "I think I had a great few days here...I have been really having fun with the course! I think that final was tight racing; unfortunately, I made a mistake at the end and I feel sorry for Belle, because she crashed out because of me, but I am happy I managed to stay up on my feet and then to make it and keep it until the finish line.”
After three straight World Champs bronze medals, Moioli would finally break the third place streak by moving up to second and claiming silver behind Bankes, while Samkova’s second career World Championships medal would come in the form of bronze as she rounded out the podium in third.
Lucas Eguibar fights until the very end
One medal for Austria was already guaranteed ahead of the men’s race in Idre Fjall, as Alessandro Haemmerle and Jakob Dusek both entered the big final alongside Sierra Nevada 2017 World Championships silver medallist Lucas Eguibar (ESP) and 19-year-old young gun Eliot Grondin from Canada.
Haemmerle was lightning fast in every heat of the day leading up to the big final, and once again he managed to shoot out of the gate hot and handle the start section the fastest in the final heat of the day, while his rival Eguibar moved into second with Grondin hanging on the Spaniards tail and into third position, with Dusek bringing up the rear.
Coming into the first bank, however, young Grondin swooped into the inside line, passing Eguibar and advancing to second, with Haemmerle still holding the lead, and this is the formation the top three would lock into heading into the long and technical final straight.
While Grondin fell into Haemmerle’s draft and inched closer to the Austrian speedster throughout the final straight, Eguibar chose his own line on the outside and seemed to be generating more speed off of every feature while the other top two competitors were only paying attention to each other.
The step-up into the final roller section was the decisive element on Thursday afternoon in the fight for World Championship gold, with both Grondin and Eguibar generating a last boost of speed.
Haemmerle, finally noticing Eguibar as the Spanish rider pulled into the lead, put in some real effort to generate more over the final rollers, and as the two approached the finish they both essentially threw themselves over the line, ending up in the finish area tangled up together for a moment and unsure of who actually grabbed gold.
In the end, it was Eguibar in one of the tightest photo finishes in World Championships history whose board crossed the finish line first, as the 27-year-old matched Bankes in the women’s event by giving his country its first ever FIS Snowboard Cross World Championships gold medal.
“I can’t believe it! I didn’t start this season very good and I came here with actually not too good feelings, but my team did such a great job today and I really can’t believe it – I think I’m dreaming,” the overwhelmed World Champion Eguibar said after the race.
By taking the silver medal, Haemmerle finally translated some of his World Cup dominance to a major event, as he claimed his first career World Championships medal.
Meanwhile, Grondin showed that the future is now for the Canadian team, as he too made history by becoming the youngest ever men’s SBX World Championship medallist by winning bronze at just 19 years old.
Tomorrow, snowboard cross athletes will enter the start gates for the mixed team event. One male and one female athlete will be teamed up per nation to fight for the World Championship medals. The competition is set up in a relay format, which means that the men will start first and the women will go once the men are in the finish. They will start out of the gates with the respective time margin that the men crossed the finish line.
In 2019 it was team USA with Lindsey Jacobellis and Mick Dierdorff who grabbed the first-ever mixed team World Championship gold medal. Although Dierdorff came in last in the men’s big final heat and Jacobellis had to start last out of the gates, she laid down an incredible performance, overtaking her rivals, and grabbing the win in the end. We can’t wait to see what goes down in this year’s edition tomorrow.
Tune in to witness this exciting competition format and to find out which team will perform best. Finals are set for 12:30 CET.
**WATCH LIVE:
Friday, February 12 at 12:30 CET:**
TV: ORF Sport+ (Austria), CT Sport (Czech Republic), Sport News (Poland), Match TV (Russia), SRF Info (Switzerland), TRT Spor2 (Turkey), NBC Olympic Channel (USA)
Livestream: FIS Snowboard Youtube channel (geo-restricted, find countries where livestream will be available HERE), CBC Streaming (Canada), Viasat Sport+ (Denmark, Norway), L’Equipe Web (France), YLE Areena (Finland), huste.tv (Slovakia), SVT Play (Sweden), BBC Sport website (UK)
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