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Austria takes Team Event title in Vail
Today at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2015 the action moved from Beaver Creek to Vail for the Nation’s Team Event with Austria (Eva-Maria Brem, Nicole Hosp, Michaela Kirchgasser, Marcel Hirscher, Christoph Noesig, Philipp Schoerghofer ) taking the gold medal. It is the fourth gold medal for the Austrians at these championships.
The action-packed parallel event was filled with tight head to head battles among the 16 competing nations. Canada (Candace Crawford, Erin Mielzynski, Marie-Pier Prefontaine, Phil Brown, Tervor Philp, Erik Read) came in a very close second while Sweden (Sara Hector, Maria Pietilae-Holmner, Anna Swenn-Larsson, Mattias Hargin, Markus Larsson, Andre Myhrer) won the bronze in the small final against Switzerland.
A favourite of the athletes who have the rare opportunity to treat skiing as a team sport, the Nation’s Team Event also impressed the spectators with its ‘March Madness’ knock-out format. Austria has won a medal at every edition of the Team event since the event entered the World Championship program in 2005.
“It was just a perfect day for us, everyone was expecting us to get the gold medal but it’s never so easy. I think the public really likes these races and for us it’s something different,” said Brem after the race. “I would really like to have this at the Olympics, it's something new and something exciting and different.”
An impressive 16 teams entered the event, which is made up of six athletes each. One of the biggest upsets came already in the 1/8 finals, when Germany made an early exit after Felix Neureuther could not make up the lost time as the fourth and last skier against Canada. The next big upset, at least for the spectators, came in the quarter-finals when Sweden knocked out USA.
The semi-final match-up of rivals Switzerland and Austria was no match for this year’s medal table leader as the Austrians won three of the four races. Canada continued its unlikely run in the semi-finals, this time ousting Sweden, which had medalled in the last three World Championships in the Team Event.
The Austria vs. Canada final was extremely close despite being a David vs. Goliath affair on paper. Canada fought until the last skier, but at last their incredible run came to an end. Despite taking second place in the final, it was still a silver lining for the North American nation as it was their first-ever World Championship medal in the Team event, and their second medal at these championships here in Vail.
"We're all proud, we fought really hard as a team and came sloe to the gold, but we're really happy to be able to stand on the podium as a team. It's a great day," said Canada's Candace Crawford.
Tomorrow is an idle day for the entire World Championships and then action resumes on Thursday when the technical events take center stage at the World Championships as action returns to Beaver Creek for the ladies’ giant slalom.
The action-packed parallel event was filled with tight head to head battles among the 16 competing nations. Canada (Candace Crawford, Erin Mielzynski, Marie-Pier Prefontaine, Phil Brown, Tervor Philp, Erik Read) came in a very close second while Sweden (Sara Hector, Maria Pietilae-Holmner, Anna Swenn-Larsson, Mattias Hargin, Markus Larsson, Andre Myhrer) won the bronze in the small final against Switzerland.
A favourite of the athletes who have the rare opportunity to treat skiing as a team sport, the Nation’s Team Event also impressed the spectators with its ‘March Madness’ knock-out format. Austria has won a medal at every edition of the Team event since the event entered the World Championship program in 2005.
“It was just a perfect day for us, everyone was expecting us to get the gold medal but it’s never so easy. I think the public really likes these races and for us it’s something different,” said Brem after the race. “I would really like to have this at the Olympics, it's something new and something exciting and different.”
An impressive 16 teams entered the event, which is made up of six athletes each. One of the biggest upsets came already in the 1/8 finals, when Germany made an early exit after Felix Neureuther could not make up the lost time as the fourth and last skier against Canada. The next big upset, at least for the spectators, came in the quarter-finals when Sweden knocked out USA.
The semi-final match-up of rivals Switzerland and Austria was no match for this year’s medal table leader as the Austrians won three of the four races. Canada continued its unlikely run in the semi-finals, this time ousting Sweden, which had medalled in the last three World Championships in the Team Event.
The Austria vs. Canada final was extremely close despite being a David vs. Goliath affair on paper. Canada fought until the last skier, but at last their incredible run came to an end. Despite taking second place in the final, it was still a silver lining for the North American nation as it was their first-ever World Championship medal in the Team event, and their second medal at these championships here in Vail.
"We're all proud, we fought really hard as a team and came sloe to the gold, but we're really happy to be able to stand on the podium as a team. It's a great day," said Canada's Candace Crawford.
Tomorrow is an idle day for the entire World Championships and then action resumes on Thursday when the technical events take center stage at the World Championships as action returns to Beaver Creek for the ladies’ giant slalom.
Source: fis-ski.com
