For the Alpine athletes, last weekend featured the technical aces in the Audi FIS Ski World Cup. An incredibly tight ladies giant slalom race unfolded on the legendary “Kandahar Giovanni A. Agnelli” slope in Sestriere (ITA) on Saturday with Tessa Worley (FRA) earning victory ahead of Sofia Goggia (ITA), who keeps exploiting her positive momentum.
On Sunday, after another very close first run, Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) charged the second run of slalom at Sestriere and convincingly claimed her 11th consecutive World Cup slalom victory.
In the men’s giant slalom in Val d’Isere (FRA) on Saturday, Alexis Pinturault (FRA) dominated the race on “La Face”. The next day, for his first slalom of the season, Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR) claimed the win on the challenging course of the “Criterium de la Première Neige”, ahead of his biggest slalom rival Marcel Hirscher (AUT).
Nordics
In the FIS Cross-Country World Cup presented by Viessmann in Davos (SUI) Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg (NOR) won her first World Cup of the season in the 15 km free technique. It was also her first career win at the 15 km distance. In the men’s 30 km free technique, Martin Johnsrud Sundby (NOR) notched his second victory, after winning the same event in 2015. The 1.6 km sprint races of Sunday saw Maiken Caspersen Falla (NOR) and Sergey Ustiugov (RUS) earn their first victories of the season.
Meanwhile in Ski Jumping, athletes were in action for two individual FIS Ski Jumping World Cup competitions presented by Viessmann per gender. In the ladies’ event, Maren Lundby (NOR) celebrated her first World Cup victory in Nizhny Tagil (RUS) on Saturday, climbing up the ranking from sixth to first place in the final round. The next day Sara Takanashi (JPN) took her third win of the season. The three-time World Cup overall winner came back after lying in fourth place in the first round with a fabulous effort to fly into first position.
The men’s events in Lillehammer (NOR) saw 17-year-old young gun, and star of the 2016-17 season so far, Domen Prevc (SLO) take his third World Cup win this winter while double Olympic Champion Kamil Stoch (POL) took his 16th victory and his first since January 2015 in the second competition.
Freestyle Skiing
The third race of the newly launched Cross Alps Tour saw the first-ever Audi FIS Ski Cross World Cup night time sprint-format competition take to the slopes of Arosa (SUI) on Tuesday night.Marielle Thompson (CAN) reasserted herself atop the ladies’ leader board with a win and Romain Detraz (SUI) thrilled the home crowd with his first career victory.
The Cross Alps Tour kicked off last weekend in Val Thorens (FRA) with Marielle Thompson (CAN) and Jean Frederic Chapuis (FRA) scoring season-opening victories and Anna Holmlund (SWE) and Alex Fiva (SUI) climbing to the top of the podium in the second race.
The Audi FIS Ski Cross World Cup Cross Alps tour now moves to Montafon (AUT) for the fourth of the six Cross Alps Tour competitions on Saturday, 17th December.
In Northern Europe, Ruka (FIN) kicked off the FIS Freestyle moguls World Cup season 2016/17. In the ladies’ event, Britteny Cox (AUS) stormed through the course, with style and grace, for her first-ever World Cup win, while on the men’s side unstoppable Mikaël Kingsbury (CAN) achieved his 34 World Cup victory and simply dominated the competition.
Snowboard
Snowboarding took a short break following the big air series last week, but will be back in action this weekend with the first alpine snowboard and snowboard cross competitions of the season in Carezza (ITA) and Montafon (AUT) respectively. In North America, big air and halfpipe competitions will be staged in Copper Mountain (USA). Click here for the competition calendar.
Source: fis-ski.com
