Snowboard cross: Martin Nörl again wins the overall World Cup

Martin Nörl has crowned his strong season. At the last World Cup of the winter on Sunday (March 26, 2023) in Mont Sainte-Anne, Canada, he was the fastest, repeating last year’s triumph in the overall standings.

Nörl started the last race with a lead of 24 points. There, the 29-year-old had to tremble for the big crystal ball until the end, as his closest competitor also advanced to the final, but lost out against Nörl. “It’s awesome and just plain crazy“, said Nörl immediately after the finish photo decision. In the final, the decision was only made in the last few centimetres. That didn’t bother Nörl: “The most important thing is that I now have the crystal ball.“

Nörl is against the direct opponents

While Nörl dominated the races from the front on the 1.2 kilometer long “Bataille Royale” course with 35 elements in his round of 16 and 16, he had to fight a lot harder in the quarterfinals, but was able to assert himself against the Swiss Kalle Loblet and secured so his place in the semi-finals. There it came to a duel with his closest pursuers in the overall World Cup, the Spaniard Lucas Eguibar and Omar Visintin from Italy. Nörl rode the heat from the front right from the start and crossed the finish line first. But since Eguibar also progressed, the decision was postponed to the final.

There, Nörl had to finish at most one place behind the Spaniard. For a long time, Nörl was in third place, right behind Eguibar. There were a few more shifts on the final stretch. Nörl secured his third win of the season in a centimeter decision and was just happy afterwards.

The second German starter Leon Backhaus was in the same quarterfinals as Nörl, but dropped out there as fourth and last.

Fischer is eliminated in the quarterfinals

In the women’s category, Jana Fischer was unable to repeat her seventh place from the previous day and this time missed out on reaching the semi-finals. In the quarter-finals she fell back a bit in the middle part of the course and couldn’t make up this gap.

Victory went to Australia’s Josie Baff, ahead of Austria’s Pia Zerkhold. Chloe Trepeuch (France) completed the podium. The Brit Charlotte Bankes was happy about the overall victory in the World Cup rankings, who, like last year, secured the big crystal globe.