At Kreischberg, Austria, the Nicolien Sauerbreij (NED) and the Jasey Jay Anderson (CAN) successfully competed against the international field in the LG Snowboard FIS World Cup season's third Parallel Giant Slalom. Sauerbreij beat Canada's Alexa Loo in the ladies' final while Fraenzi Maegert-Kohli from Switzerland outpaced local hero Marion Kreiner (AUT) in the battle for third.

On the men's side, Anderson, who also took over the Parallel World Cup leadership due to today's triumph, edged Andreas Prommegger (AUT) to the runner-up spot. The Austrian's countryman Benjamin Karl was ahead by a nose in the small final against Tyler Jewell thus rounding out the podium as third.

Experience makes the difference

With just a few weeks to go until the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games kick off it seems that the experienced World Cup riders have put together the right mixture of strength, stamina, equipment and know-how. Besides Anderson, who celebrated his career's 26th World Cup triumph in his 205th World Cup start, all top-ranked riders have a long-time World Cup history to look back on: Sauerbreij raced her 190th contest, Loo her 126th and Prommegger competed in his 166th World Cup.

Due to this, 34-years-old race board veteran Anderson said that "besides intensive training sessions, experience is the crucial factor; although it was a bit of a surprise for me to have such a great start into the New Year after the old one wrapped up perfectly (1st in Telluride), I knew that I can ride."

Another important factor on his way to success was the slope at Kreischberg which demanded everything of the field with its steep parts and technically challenging section transfers. "I love this hill. It's good for me and I'm happy that I was able to take advantage of it", the reigning Parallel Giant Slalom World Champion added after his career's 58th podium finish.

Just like the "Canadian Rocket", Nicolien Sauerbreij was also very pleased after having successfully fought back into the line which laid the fruitful base for the Overall World Cup title two seasons ago. "Last year, I always kind of missed just a few hundredths to proceed." No wonder, that today's victory was very important for the 30-years-old Olympic hopeful from the Netherlands. "I have the feeling again which enables me to play with the board and my opponents. It's good that everyone sees that I'm back" Sauerbreij stated after her career's seventh World Cup win.

Gasp of relief for Loo and Prommegger

Besides both winning athletes also both runner-ups were all smiles after the race. On the one hand, Alexa Loo was able to wipe out all memories of her disappointing results before Christmas by bringing home her career's best ever result thus ensuring a decent result in the race for the national Olympic spots: "This was so important. It took a load off my mind as I was close to freak out after I placed 25th twice in Telluride. I'm from Vancouver and get a lot of media interest and finally they can write something good. Oh my God, I still can ride!"

On the other hand and despite the fact that he missed the first rank, Andreas Prommegger was very happy with his result as he finally beat his team mate Benjamin Karl in a head-to-head duel: "I don't know when I beat him the last time. It feels like ages ago. It's very good for me to experience this again." So, no worries about the 56 hundredths he had earned in the first run of the final against Anderson and lost in the second run again: "I'm just happy. It was a great event, the slope was just perfect. I just enjoyed my day on the board."

FISsnowboard.com
Wednesday 6 January 2010