In the possibly closest season’s finals in the history of the LG Snowboard FIS World Cup, the last decisions were made in today’s last competition of the 2008/2009 winter.

In a true heartbeat final, Amelie Kober claimed her season’s consecutive fourth victory in Valmalenco, Italy, thus also clinching the first ever Parallel World Cup title for Germany. In the ladies’ finals, the 21-year-old relegated Caroline Calve (CAN) to the second spot. Doris Guenther who finished third today missed the Parallel World Cup title but was also all smiles after getting awarded with the Overall World Cup title.

On the men’s side, today’s victory was taken by Jasey-Jay Anderson (CAN) who was able to beat Benjamin Karl (AUT) in the final again just like one week ago in La Molina, Spain. Siegfried Grabner (AUT) came in third thus securing both, the Parallel and Overall World Cup title.

Before today’s race, the set-up for all three still open decisions was a very close one. In the ladies’ Parallel World Cup ranking so far leading Doris Guenther and runner-up Amelie Kober were only separated by 232 points. And after the German had beaten her rival for the Crystal Globe in a direct duel in the semi finals, the Austrian had to place on the podium in order to keep the chance to defend her lead in the race for the Parallel title. Indeed, the third rank wouldn’t help her at all if Kober would win again.

However, in today’s battle for third, Guenther proved that she has strong nerves as she was able to make up the penalty time which she had gained after several mistakes in the first run against Claudia Riegler and crossed the finish line ahead of her team mate. Thus, Kober was the one who called the shots. “Actually, I didn’t want to know anything about the result of the small final. But after someone had told me that Doris (Guenther) placed third I knew that I had to win.”

With this certainty in mind, the Miesbach resident showed some shakiness and little mistakes in the final against Calve for the first time of the day as she had quickly lost her lead of 24 hundredths earned in run one. But in the end, Kober also benefitted from the mistakes of her contender. In the lower part of the “Barchi” course, the motor cycle fan was back to business again clinching not only her season’s fifth World Cup win but also the first ever Parallel World Cup title for Germany. “I can’t get it yet. There was so much pent-up tension. Over the last days, I was thinking and calculating the whole time. I was so nervous and was shaking today but it worked out”, said today’s triumphator who had dominated the second half of the wrapped-up season.

The first part of the finished winter was the one of Doris Guenther who had put her stamp on the first six races and finally finished in the Parallel World Cup ranking as runner-up with 6,070 points, only 162 points behind of Kober (6,232). “But I’m not disappointed as I noticed over the last weeks that I wasn’t in shape anymore. I gave everything today but I have to confess that I couldn’t do any better against Amelie (Kober) in the semi finals. She was just too strong.” However, the 30-year-old was able to console herself with the Overall World Cup title: “Well, this for sure is a great compensation. In addition, we all pulled off a real good show today.”

Grabner is the man of the season

A major role of this show was played by the men, too. Today, it was Siegfried Grabner who above all was the one in the thick of the things. The snowboard veteran had to place ninth in order to take the Crystal Globe in the Parallel World Cup but had to become third for the Overall World Cup title. After he had made it into the quarter finals, it was obvious that mission one was completed already, but for the goal of gaining the Overall crown, he had to battle hard.

Especially as he lost the semi finals against later on winner Jasey-Jay Anderson in the closest possible way. After Grabner went into the second run with a lead of only three hundredths both race boarders crossed the finish line even so the Canadian moved on to the big finals as he was the one who had catched up in run two. “At this moment I was just thinking ‘oh oh’! You cannot trust or rely on anyone. You have to collect every single point by yourself. Luckily, I was able to bring down my best two runs in the small final” said the double title winner of 2009 with a beaming smile. “This is just amazing, this was an incredible race. Last season, I didn’t really recognise myself at all. That wasn’t me riding. But this year, I wanted to throw something into the bargain and I just did it! This makes me very proud.”

While he was crowned as the rider of the season winning the Overall World Cup he didn’t forget about his fellow countryman Markus Schairer whom Grabner had edged off from the top spot of the ranking due to his today earned 600 points. After a more than six months lasting season, Grabner (5,520) only had collected 70 points more than Schairer (5,450). “Therefore I have to admit that one half of the big Crystal Globe belongs to Maxl (Schairer). Especially as he wasn’t able to compete in the last Snowboard Cross due to his surgery.”

Although he wasn’t able to start last Friday in the season’s final Snowboard Cross the reigning SBX World Champion watched the finals of today and “was shaking a lot and sweating even more. After the semi finals I was reckoning what Sigi (Grabner) would maybe think right now. At the moment I’m disappointed a little bit as I couldn’t do anything due to my surgery of last Sunday. But I won’t complain as the decision to undergo the knee surgery was definitive the right one if I want to do well next season.”

Anderson with season’s second win

Today’s results were “incredible” for Jasey-Jay Anderson as well as “the whole day I had problems finding a good line but then I figured it out just in the finals and put it all together. I can’t believe it. This really makes me proud.” Due to his back-to-back victory it was the perfect ending of the season for the 33-year-old “Canadian Rocket” who also had celebrated the PGS World Championship title in January: “I couldn’t have gone or plan for a finish like this.”

In addition, by earning another 1000 points, Anderson rounded out the Parallel World Cup podium as third (4,710) just behind of Grabner (5,520) and Benjamin Karl (AUT, 5,000). On the ladies’ side, it was Tomoka Takeuchi from Japan (4,670) who placed third behind of Kober and Guenther. The Austrian claimed the Overall World Cup title ahead of Lindsey Jacobellis (USA) and Kober while Austria celebrated a podium sweep in the Overall World Cup ranking with Grabner first, Schairer second and Karl third.

Sunday, 22 March 2009 18:46
fissnowboardworldcup.com

Zebrowski wins, Liu triumphs

In the last halfpipe competition of the 2009 LG Snowboard FIS World Cup which took place today in Valmalenco, Italy, Jiayu Liu (CHN) and Gary Zebrowski (FRA) dominated the competition. In the ladies’ final, the newly crowned World Cup title winner from China once again impressed with her riding claiming her season’s third victory with 46.4 points.

Holly Crawford (AUS, 40.6) came in second. Sarah Conrad (CAN, 38.9) rounded out the podium as third. On the men’s side, Gary Zebrowski celebrated his career’s second World Cup triumph just like 2005 in Tandadalen (SWE) at the World Cup finals. Scoring 48.0 points, the French rider gave no rise to doubts about who rules the roost by relegating Nathan Johnstone (AUS, 42.4) and Xiayoe Zeng (CHN, 41.9) to the second and third rank respectively.

Asia’s World Cup title winners had cleared their Crystal Globes already the last week with Jiayu Liu clinching her career’s first ever title due to 5,100 points earned over the last six months. The Chinese rider was followed by Japan’s Shiho Nakashima (3,320) and Soko Yamaoka (2,270). On the men’s side, Ryoh Aono (JPN) secured his career’s second Crystal Globe with 2,600 points after winning the title in 2007 ahead of Nathan Johnstone (2,310) and Gary Zebrowski (2,159.1).

But today, all eyes were on Jiayu Liu again – just like the most competitions over the last two years. The 19-year-old freestyler put her stamp on the 2009 season by placing five times on the podium in six starts, winning three of them. In addition, Liu also claimed the Gold medals in the 2009 FIS Snowboard World Championships in Gangwon, Korea and at the Universiade in China. No wonder that the rider who had celebrated her World Cup debut in Calgary two years ago by finishing as runner-up was all smiles after the World Cup title ceremony: “It was a very good season and I’m very proud to take home the Crystal Globe.” But that’s not all as “I worked a lot over the last season but still have to improve a lot.”

But today, the spectators along the 130 metres long halfpipe witnessed that Liu’s hard work paid off as her first run in the finals wasn’t to beat by her rivals. Starting with a very high “Frontside Air” and “Backside Air”, she also sticked a “Frontside 540 stale”, “Backside 540 melon”, “Frontside 720 indy” and a final “Cab 360 mute”. “It just went super good. I felt good all day. I’m really happy to have won in this perfect pipe”, said the Chinese rider.

Although Holly Crawford couldn’t ride as she wanted to due to the handling of some long-term consequences of her crash in Cypress about one month ago, the 25-year-old 2009 World Championships Silver medallist wasn’t disappointed with her result after she had thrown in a “Lien Air”, “Japan Air“, “Frontside 540 melon“, “Japan Air“, “Frontside 720 indy“, “Cab 360 mute“ and “Frontside nose“: “I’m pretty happy to close the season with a podium as I still have some problems since Cypress. In addition, I hurt myself in the training yesterday. But I tried to shut it out and get through it.”

Zebrowski finally on top again!

Gary Zebrowski had to wait four whole seasons in order to celebrate his career’s second World Cup triumph. But today, it was time again to place on top after the 24-year-old had underlined his ambition to victory in several training and qualifier runs throughout the season but wasn’t able to put it all together in a final run. It seemed that the Frenchman wanted to prove himself that he can do it as he nailed two perfect runs in today’s finals missing the perfect score of 50 points just by 2 for his “Backside Air“, “Frontside 1080 tail“, “Cab 1080 nose“, “Frontside 900 melon“ und “Backside 540 mute“.

“It’s incredible. It finally worked out. It’s perfect that I won here in Valmalenco. I was pushing myself the whole season to finish as first and now it finally worked out. Now I can enjoy the surfing on Tahiti”, said the 2006 Olympian after his career’s fourth World Cup podium.

Nathan Johnstone was in a similar mood as Zebrowski as it seems that the 19-year-old likes the Italian halfpipes. After he had placed second in Bardonecchia this winter he also finished as runner-up in Valmalenco thus celebrating his third podium in his ninth World Cup start. “I love it. Italy brought the good again. I’m so happy right now. I wanted to go out with a good result and I did it!” And he did in an impressive way: A “Cab 720“, “Frontside 900 mute“, “Backside 900 melon“, “Double Grab Air“ a “Backside 720 melon“ to finish his run also bumped the Aussie into second position of the final Halfpipe World Cup ranking: “I’m proud to finish the season as second. I tried to make it to the top-6 so I’m super stoked.”

Saturday, 21 March 2009 20:26
fissnowboardworldcup.com