Snowboard
One of the best seasons ever came to an end for Austria’s raceboarders in Berchtesgaden on Sunday. No fewer than 23 World Cup podiums (nine wins, ten second places, four third places), four crystal globes in the parallel snowboarding world cup and six World Championship medals (one gold, three silver, two bronze) at the title fights in Bakuriani in Georgia bear witness to this .
“From the first to the last race, it was an outstanding performance by the entire team – starting with the athletes, through team management, the coaches, to the service crew, the physiotherapists and all other supervisors. Everyone did a perfect job and made their contribution to this impressive success,” explained Christian Galler, the sports director for snowboarding in the ÖSV.
Overall World Cup winner Fabian Obmann drove to his first individual World Cup victory in the finish and thus also got the overall victory and the small PSL crystal ball by a hair’s breadth. The ÖSV was represented on the podium in every individual and team race. Of course, Austria also clearly won the Parallel Nations Cup with 3,918 points ahead of Italy (3,149) and Switzerland (2,355). In total, the red-white-red raceboarders achieved no fewer than ten top three places in the various World Cup rankings.
The final point after a sensational weekend in Berchtesgaden was set by the chairman and Sabine Schöffmann in the mixed team competition on Sunday. In this discipline, Andreas Prommegger and Daniela Ulbing got the small crystal ball.
Offspring is already showing
The youngsters are also knocking from below, as shown by Styrian Christoph Karner’s overall European Cup victory. He has secured a starting place for the coming World Cup season, as has Martina Ankele from Carinthia, who is third overall. “It is very important that we are well on our way with our offspring. I have confidence in our talents that they will gain a foothold in the World Cup,” explained Galler.
The next test for the ÖSV rookies awaits with the Junior World Championships at the weekend in Bansko. Austria is represented in the title fights with Pia Schöffmann and Marie Gams from Styria, as well as Karner, Julian Treffler, Werner Pietsch, Joachim Gravogl from Lower Austria and Lion Hammerschmidt from Styria.
