SNOWBOARDING:

Austria's Karl wins slalom for 2nd gold of snowboard worlds

Jan. 22, 2011 

LA MOLINA, Spain — Benjamin Karl of Austria and Hilde-Katrine Engeli of Norway won gold medals in the parallel slalom events Saturday at the snowboard World Championships.

Karl won his second title of the championships after overtaking Switzerland's Simon Schoch in the second run. Karl also won the parallel giant slalom on Wednesday, and was the defending champion in Saturday's event.

Rok Marguc of Slovenia beat Austrian rider Andreas Prommegger for the bronze medal.

Canada was paced by Matthew Morison in seventh, with Michael Lambert 12th.

In the women's race, the 22-year-old Engeli beat Olympic champion Nicolien Sauerbrelj to win the final by 0.92 seconds.

Claudia Riegler raced past Heidi Neururer for the women's bronze after capitalizing on her fellow Austrian's fall in the first run.

Caroline Calve, 18th, was tops among Canadian women, with Ariana Lavigne 22nd.

In the slopestyle competition, Seppe Smits of Belgium won the men's event and Enni Rukajarvi of Finland took the women's gold.

In a final decided by the best of two runs, Smits scored 28.7 on his second run to edge runner-up Niklas Mattsson of Sweden, who scored 28.1 on his first attempt.

Ville Paumola of Finland finished third (26.2), followed by Zebastian Landmark of Sweden (25.9), and Clemens Schattschneider of Austria (25.5).

In the women's event, Rukajarvis scored 28.2 points in her second run for a comfortable victory over Sarka Pancochova of the Czech Republic, who had 25.2. Shelly Gotlieb of New Zealand was third.

Morison opened the elimination rounds with a win against Slovenian rider Zan Kosir to advance in the quarterfinals. In the second dual, Morison faced Schoch of Switzerland. In the first run, Morison crossed the finish line with a deficit of .36 seconds. In his second of two runs against the Swiss rider, Morison fell short of making his comeback, and conceded the victory, trailing Schoch by 0.14 seconds.

“I raced strong today, but unfortunately couldn’t find the speed to beat Schoch”, said Morison. “My riding and racing is very close to getting back on the podium, I just need to make a few very small changes, both technically and mentally, going into race day, which I will do going into the World Cup in Stoneham, Quebec."

Lambert faced off against Italian Rolland Fishnaller in his opening dual. In his first run, Lambert fell, which left him with the maximum penalty of 1.3 seconds. Lambert fought hard to come back in the second run and take Fishnaller at the finish line, but fell short, losing the second run by just 0.11 seconds.

“In a lot of ways, today was a success for me. It was great to qualify and be back in the top 16. It was the first time this year I really felt like I had my 'feet' back under me,” said Lambert. “I stuck to the same mental preparation which led me to the podium last year and was able to get out some great runs.

“On a flat course I knew it might be hard to make it up, but I grit my teeth and went for it and made up 1.20 seconds on him. I lost by a tenth of a second, but I'm definitely walking away feeling really good about the speed I have on my board,” continued Lambert.

Calvé had an excellent second qualification run, but was unable to reduce the deficit

World Championships rookie Lavigne improved her results from the parallel giant slalom. Ekaterina Zavialova finished 35th.

“The first qualification run was costly for me. I had a really good section on the flats. In the last section, I mismanaged my pitch approach and had to slow down not to miss a gate. I was 11th in my lane after the first run,” said Calvé, Canada’s most experienced alpine rider in La Molina. “I would really have liked to see the first run canceled, like they did with the guys.”

“I had a really good second qualification run. I finished 18th in total, so made up a lot of time — unfortunately not enough for reach the top 16. I had one second to catch up, and in slalom, the times are really close as we saw today.”

Two Canadian snowboarders cracked the top eight of the men’s slopestyle contest, with Julien Beaulieu of Lac Beauport, Que., finishing in sixth place and Robby Balharry of Canmore, Alta., finishing in seventh place.

“I am more than satisfied with the sixth place. I was aiming at a top 12 here,” said  Beaulieu. “The course had five rail set-ups, and that certainly helped me out because I am good on rails. I took advantage of that for sure, and abused them as much as I could. The conditions were cold and icy, and since I am from Quebec, I think that played to my advantage as well.”

“I have some props to give to all my sponsors, but specifically to the micro-brewery Archibald who helped me get to Spain for the World Championships. A big thanks to my coach in Québec, Yves Martineau, and to Jesse Fulton here in Spain,” added Beaulieu.

Balharry was pleased with his performance at worlds: “It was a good day. I obviously wanted to do better, but that’s how it rolls sometimes. The contest was really good. The course was really fun.

“Unfortunately, yesterday the weather was bad for the qualifications and our heat got canceled. Today turned out to be a super-awesome day. I definitely would have liked to do better, but I am a happy guy going back home!”

Elliott Catton of Collingwoood, Ont., also qualified for the finals, finishing in 16th position. Zach Stone of Thornbury, Ont., the silver medallist in the big-air contest, finished 19th.

In the women’s contest, no Canadian riders advanced to the finals. Samm Denena of Orillia, Ont., was the best Canadian in 14th place. National team member Alexandra Duckworth of Kingsburg, N.S., finished 17th, while Diane Rudge of Thornbury, Ont., came in 19th. S-Magazine

— The Canadian Press and Canada Snowboard contributed to this report

La Molina snowboard World Championships men's parallel slalom results

La Molina snowboard World Championships women's parallel slalom results