CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Katharina Liensberger was speaking to reporters within the combined zone when she discovered that her silver medal within the parallel occasion had been upgraded to a tie for gold on the Alpine snowboarding world championships.
The Austrian fell to the snow in celebration.
“I simply can’t consider it, nevertheless it’s true,” Liensberger mentioned. “I used to be somewhat bit confused within the end.”
There was loads of confusion to go round because the parallel occasion made its debut on the world championships.
The format with skiers competing facet by facet on large slalom-like programs is a TV-friendly spectacle meant so as to add extra pleasure to the championships. However the occasion has seen so many rule modifications over time that even organizers wanted a while to kind out tips on how to divvy up the medals.
The ladies’s two-run remaining between Marta Bassino and Liensberger led to a tie, and organizers initially declared the Italian the winner as she got here from behind within the second leg.
Nonetheless, that was an outdated rule which is not legitimate anymore. So the outcomes had been shortly modified to having two co-champions.
“Simply 0.00 (on the clock), after which no one knew what was occurring,” Liensberger mentioned.
There was no confusion over the end result within the males’s remaining, the place Mathieu Faivre received each runs towards Croatian skier Filip Zubcic to earn France its first gold of the worlds.
Bronze within the ladies’s occasion went to France’s Tessa Worley, who defeated Paula Moltzan of the US.
“My finest at world champs earlier than this was (18th), so fourth is unimaginable,” mentioned Moltzan, who completed runner-up in the one World Cup parallel occasion this season in November.
Why is Moltzan doing so nicely at parallel races?
“I like the beginning gates,” she mentioned. “As athletes we’re all super-competitive so I believe that is an attention-grabbing technique to carry it out of all people and I had plenty of enjoyable. I similar to it.”
Loic Meillard received bronze for Switzerland within the males’s race after beating Alexander Schmid of Germany within the small remaining.
A qualification spherical had decreased the sphere for each races to 16 skiers, with Petra Vlhova, Lara Intestine-Behrami and Marco Schwarz among the many most notable eliminations in that early morning session.
A number of different massive names hadn’t entered the occasion, together with Mikaela Shiffrin, Michelle Gisin, Alexis Pinturault and Henrik Kristoffersen.
“I believe all of us actually like racing it,” Shiffrin mentioned. “It is extra of a form of tournament-style environment, it is simply form of electrical for the entire race. There may be not like several downtime for the viewers.”
Nonetheless, racing the parallel occasion at these worlds has by no means been an possibility for the American, primarily as a result of she lacked time for the precise coaching required due to the distinctive begin gate and course set.
“I do just like the parallel occasion nevertheless it’s nonetheless a tough occasion to plan logistically. Even now there’s undoubtedly some issues to kind by,” Shiffrin mentioned. “The record of logistics that form of create a problem is fairly lengthy.”
Which confirmed in Tuesday’s race.
As soon as once more at a parallel race, the 2 programs weren’t equally quick, with virtually all runs received by the skier on the crimson course. The racers switched sides between runs, so that they had one go at every course, nevertheless it was a bonus to have the sooner course for the second run.
“It was essentially the most unfair and absurd race,” mentioned Federica Brignone, the general World Cup champion, after dropping an all-Italian quarterfinal to Bassino. “Whoever began on the blue course within the first run had already virtually received.”
Bassino acknowledged “there’s at all times some controversy in parallel. However a minimum of right this moment everybody bought to run on each programs.”
Sharing the win with Liensberger, Bassino earned host nation Italy its first medal after seven occasions.
“Lastly. We do not have the gang however now I’ve a medal so I can suppose (about) the GS with out stress,” mentioned Bassino, who’s a favourite in Thursday’s large slalom after successful 4 World Cup races within the self-discipline this season.
Bassino devoted the win to her workforce and injured teammate Sofia Goggia, the downhill standout who’s out for the season after injuring her knee per week earlier than the worlds.
