Montafon, Austria – The weather took a turn for the better in Montafon in time for Saturday’s World Cup Snowboard Cross season opener in Austria, where Czech rider Eva Samková took the win for the women and Austria’s Markus Schairer bested the men’s field.
Samková, a three-time Junior World Champion, dominated all of her heats, including the women’s final, to relegate last year’s winner in Montafon, Dominique Maltais of Canada, and 2009 World Champion Helene Olafsen of Norway to second and third, respectively.
“It was a perfect day, everything went fine, instead my first qualification run. That wasn’t the one. But I improved and posted the best time,” said Samková, who secured her spot in the finals by nailing her second run of the time trials on Saturday morning to continue to the second World Cup victory of her career. “In the finals, I tried to have some good starts to avoid any kind of problems.”
Maltais, of Petite-Rivière-Saint-François, Quebec, had qualified 9th earlier in the morning. “I thought I was fast in the course and maybe I was a little too relaxed,” Maltais, 32, said immediately after the race. “I ended finishing with a time that wasn’t what I was hoping for.
“The strategy was to stay very close to (Samková) and try to pass between the third and fourth turn. I ended arriving a little too early and wasn’t able to make the pass,” added Maltais. “I’m still very happy with the results. A second place tells me that things are going well. Obviously the objective is to be perfect and there are lots of great upcoming races to win. That’s my goal.”
Second-year U.S. Snowboarding athlete Jackie Hernandez, of Londonderry, Vt., finished sixth and posted the top spot for the U.S., while her Vermont neighbor — Olympic medalist Lindsey Jacobellis — won the small final race and finished seventh in her first snowboardcross event in nearly two years.
“It’s great to have Lindsey back after two years and she’s racing great,” said head U.S. Snowboarding coach Peter Foley. “She won the early rounds by a mile and had an unfortunate crash in the round of twelve and then won the small final by a mile, which is great to see.”
Olympic Champion Maelle Ricker wasn’t able to take part in the race. She suffered a mild concussion in training and returned to her home in Squamish, British Columbia, Canada.
“As the defending World Champion, Maelle has already pre-qualified her spot on the Olympic Team for Sochi,” said Robert Joncas, High Performance Director of Canada Snowboard. “We felt that it was the best decision for Maelle and for the Canadian Team to send her home to speed up her recovery before rejoining us in Lake Louise for the FIS World Cup later this month.”
Ricker’s Canadian teammate Kevin Hill, of Vernon, British Columbia, was also all smiles after grabbing his first ever World Cup podium, finishing third in the men’s contest behind Schairer and Omar Visintin of Italy. “To finally get on the podium feels great and it’s the perfect year to do it.”
Local hero Schairer was himself satisfied to fulfill his dream of winning on home soil.
“It was a weekend you can only dream of. I won the qualifiers and the race,” Schairer cheered after his career’s fourth World Cup win. “Today, I just overslept the first two starts but was able to still win the heats. I’m super happy about this win in front of my home crowd. You could hear them scream at the start. That’s the icing on the cake.”
Jonathan Cheever, of Saugus, Mass., took the top spot for the U.S. men in 13th while Telluride, Colo.’s Hagen Kearney finished right behind Cheever in 14th.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
FIS Snowboard World Cup
Montafon, Austria – Dec. 7, 2013
Snowboard Cross
WOMEN
1. SAMKOVA Eva (CZE)
2. MALTAIS Dominique (CAN)
3. OLAFSEN Helene (NOR)
MEN
1. SCHAIRER Markus (AUT)
2. VISINTIN Omar (ITA)
3. HILL Kevin (CAN)