The seasonal crowns in Big Air and Snowboard Cross are to be decided this weekend in Canada and Switzerland; the current situations:
● Big Air in Quebec City
The Big Air discipline was pretty limited in 2018-19, with just four competitions scheduled and the final event this weekend. The seasonal leaders:
● Men:
1. 2,600 Takeru Otsuka (JPN)
2. 2,090 Chris Corning (USA) ~ Defending Champion
3. 1,340 Clemens Millauer (AUT)
4. 1,045 Ruki Tobita (JPN)
5. 1,000 Sven Thorgren (SWE)
● Women:
1. 2,400 Reira Iwabuchi (JPN)
1. 2,400 Miyabi Onitsuka (JPN)
3. 1,600 Anna Gasser (AUT) ~ Defending Champion
4. 1,200 Klaudia Medlova (SVK)
5. 990 Loranne Smans (BEL)
Corning has already won the Slopestyle seasonal title and will try to expand his trophy case in Big Air. Otsuka has won medals in all three events held so far: silver-bronze-silver compared to gold-silver-ninth for Corning.
Onitsuka has been consistent: second in all three World Cups! Onitsuka won the first two, then slipped to sixth in the last contest, so they are tied on the points list going into the final event. Defending champ Gasser could only catch them if both of the Japanese fail badly.
● Snow Cross in Veysonnaz
This is the fifth race in the World Cup SnowCross series and the season titles are hardly settled:
● Men:
1. 1,830 Martin Noerl (GER)
2. 1,640 Alessandro Hammerle (AUT)
3. 1,535 Omar Visintin (ITA)
4. 1,440 Alex Pullin (NZL)
5. 1,378.2 Emanuel Perathoner (ITA) ~ 2019 World Championships bronze medalist
● Women:
1. 3,400 Lindsey Jacobellis (USA) ~ Six-time World Champion
1. 3,400 Eva Samkova (CZE) ~ 2019 World Champion
3. 2,050 Micaela Moioli (ITA) ~ Defending Champion, 2019 Worlds bronze
4. 1,850 Charlotte Bankes (GBR) ~2019 World Championships silver medalist
5. 1,700 Nelle Moenne Loccoz (FRA)
The men’s situation is completely opaque since there have been four winners in the four races so far. In fact, Noerl is the only one of the leaders who has won two medals this season. The World Championships medal winners aren’t in the seasonal running at all: Mick Dierdorff (USA) won gold, followed by Hanno Douschan (AUT) and Perathoner.
Jacobellis ended up fifth in the World Championships, missing the Big Final altogether, but won a gold medal in the Mixed Team event with Dierdorff. She won a seasonal World Cup title only once, back in 2007, and was second in 2008 and 2014.
Samkova won the 2017 World Cup title and now owns a career triple crown of a World Cup title, Olympic gold medal (2014) and World Championships gold.
Both have been consistent riders this season, with both winning medals in all four races. Jacobellis has finished 1-2-1-3, while Samkova placed 2-1-3-1 in the four races to date.
Look for results here.
