The final races of the Snowboard World Cup Parallel Slalom season had a big impact on who took home the Crystal Globe, but the most surprising aspect turned out to be the winners.
In the men’s final, Austria’s Lukas Mathies won his first World Cup race in five years by defeating Germany’s Stefan Baumeister, but only thanks to a disqualification of quarterfinal winner Roland Fischnaller (ITA), who had defeated Mathies clearly.
“The last few years were really hard for me,” Mathies said. “But I changed my board and set-up last year and found some new motivation for training and racing. This year, it’s been step-by-step. I started the season ranked 32nd, and now I’m the winner of a World Cup. It’s awesome. I never gave up and now I’ve got back to the top.”
Baumeister also got a consolation prize, the season title in the Parallel Slalom discipline.
The women’s race was equally wild, with Swiss Patrizia Kummer defeating Czech superstar Ester Ledecka in the quarterfinals. In the final, Kummer won over German Selina Joerg by 0.01 by stretching her hand over the finish line!
“It was amazing,” Kummer said of her first victory in over two years, “It was a super tight race and I think that’s how snowboard racing should be; tight and fair. I fought so hard for this win, for two years now, but also just today. I’m so happy right now…I’m speechless. And it’s so great because I decided two or three weeks ago that I would continue racing next season, so it’s relieving to know that I can still be the fastest girl in the world.”
Ledecka still won the women’s overall Parallel title – Parallel Slalom and Parallel Giant Slalom – and said afterwards “I think it was a great day. I haven’t had much training in slalom this season: four days altogether, which is really not enough at all (laughing).
“It’s my birthday today and my goal was to give myself a gift of the globe, and it really happened, which is awesome. I missed three races this season (while racing in Alpine) and I really wasn’t sure if I would be able to do it this year, so I’m really happy for this.”
Swiss Julie Zogg won the season title in the Parallel Slalom, finishing ahead of Joerg by just 20 points … or that 0.01 of a second behind Kummer. Summaries:
FIS Snowboard World Cup
Winterberg (GER) ~ 23-24 March 2019
(Full results here)
Men’s Parallel Slalom/ Big Final: 1. Lukas Mathies (AUT); 2. Stefan Baumeister (GER); Small Final: 3. Zan Kosir (SLO); 4. Tim Mastnak (SLO).
Men’s Parallel Slalom Final Standings: 1. Stefan Baumeister (GER), 2,020; 2. Andrey Sobolev (RUS), 1,990; 3. Dario Caviezel (SUI), 1,870; 4. Lukas Mathies (AUT), 1,650; 5. Dmitry Loginov (RUS), 1,600.
Men’s Parallel Final Standings: 1. Sobolev (RUS), 4,625; 2. Tim Mastnak (SLO), 4,116; 3. Roland Fischnaller (ITA), 3,989.4; 4. Loginov (RUS), 3,812.2; 5. Mathies (AUT), 3,600.
Women’s Parallel Slalom/ Big Final: 1. Patrizia Kummer (SUI); 2. Selina Joerg (GWR); Small Final: 3. Ladina Jenny (SUI); 4. Daniela Ulbing (AUT).
Women’s Parallel Slalom Final Standings: 1. Julie Zogg (SUI), 2,220; 2. Selina Joerg (GER), 2,200; 3. Patrizia Kummer (SUI), 2,180; 4. Sabine Schoeffmann (AUT), 2,060; 5. Claudia Riegler (AUT), 1,476.
Women’s Parallel Final Standings: 1. Ester Ledecka (CZE), 5,900; 2. Joerg (GER), 5,619.7; 3. Schoeffmann (AUT), 5,250; 4. Zogg (SUI), 4,770; 5. Nadya Ochner (ITA), 4,080.
Mixed Team/ Big Final: 1. Daniela Ulbing/Benjamin Karl (AUT); 2. Patrizia Kummer/Dario Caviezel (SUI). Small Final: 3. Selina Joerg/Stefan Baumeister (GER); 4. Elizaveta Salikhova/Vic Wild (RUS).
