The second competition of the FIS Super Series big air tour took place on Friday evening in Moenchengladbach (GER) under the lights of the city’s Sparkassenpark. The crowd gathered around the custom-built scaffold jump set-up saw some of the world’s finest big air freeskiers battling it out in the quest for not just the Super Series title, but also the first big air World Cup crystal globe, to be awarded at the end of the season. At the end of Friday’s competition it was Silvia Bertagna (ITA) and Henrik Harlaut (SWE) finishing on top of the podium at another exceptionally entertaining big air competition in a season that has already been stacked with them.
Siliva Bertagna with a historic win
On the ladies side 30-year-old Silvia Bertagna took her first ever World Cup victory, making it also a historic day for Italian freestyle skiing. Bertagna secured the first FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cup win for Italy in more than 12 years, after Karl Heinz Molling won the ski cross competition in Pozza di Fassa back in 2004. After qualifying from the 4th spot, Bertagna stepped it up in the finals and had no problems on any of her two counting tricks. With switch 720 mute grab and 900 tail grab Italian rider locked up 169.40 points, what turned out to be just enough for the win.
“Today was a great night for me”, said Bertagna following the awards ceremony, ”Things didn't go so smooth in training yesterday so I wasn't all that confident. In the end, I performed much better than I expected… It really is a great feeling to be here today.”
Bertagna was followed by Emma Dahlstrom (SWE) who landed her trademark cork 720 tail grab and switch 720 double japan grab and finished the competition with a final score of 162.20. It was the Swedish skier’s third big air World Cup podium in three events on the season, and it ensured that the 24-year-old would hold on to the leader’s yellow bib that she first earned with a win at the season opener in El Colorado.
“It's a great feeling to be the overall World Cup leader after this amazing event in Moenchengladbach,” said Dahlstorm, “I've advanced from third place in Milan to second place here, so let's see what will be the outcome next time.”
Crowd favourite Lisa Zimmermann (GER) rounded up the ladies’ podium in Moenchengladbach. After taking top spot in qualifications, and landing her switch 720 high safety in the first run, Zimmermann looked to be only one stomped trick short of claiming her second World Cup win in a row. However, her execution was lacking on her signature 900 in her next two attempts, and she would fall behind both Bertagna and Dahlstrom.
“I was a bit saddened especially after my second run” said Zimmermann after the competition, “I wanted to show my fans and family here what I have in store. It could have worked out better. Third place is still not bad and the other girls did really well. It was a great atmosphere and a great home crowd.”
After 3rd place on the day Zimmermann is now leading the Super Series ranking with 160 points, 10 points ahead of Bertagna and 20 points ahead of Dahlstrom.
Harlaut comes back on top of the podium
In men’s competition the skiers were in top gear, throwing down a sophisticated combination of doubles and triples and putting all kinds of pressure on the judges. With the winner from the last Super Series event in Milan (ITA), Kai Mahler (SUI), finding himself outside of the finals, as well as names like Jesper Tjader (SWE) and Klaus Finne (NOR), you know the competition level on Friday was world-class. Harlaut would own the day, making an impressive comeback to the top of the podium by displaying his signature creativity, technicality and, above all, style. He stomped dub bio 1260 safety grab in his first run before baking it up with a switch 1440 tail to safety grab that gave him a two-jump total score of 177.00. Harlaut not only won the competition, but also increased his lead in the overall big air World Cup standing to 63 points over Luca Schuhler (SUI). On top of this, he is now only one point behind Oystein Braaten (NOR) on the Super Series’ leaderboard. “I’m stoked about today's win” said Harlaut,
“I wish I would have performed even better though. I know I can do better than this, but today it was enough for victory. But my favourite was Luca Schuler. I love his tricks and landings. He got me all hyped up.”
Not only did Schuler impress Harlaut, he impressed the judges too, and his switch dub misty 1440 and dub bio 1080, performed with his favorite bow’n’arrow grab, convinced them tonight to award Schuler with a combined score of 174.20 points and second place on the day.
Third place went to Eirik Sateroy (NOR), who managed to slide into the mens’ podium once again with the same tricks combinations that he performed in Milan, including a massive triple 1440 safety grab followed by a switch double 1080 tail grab. Sateroy continues to amaze, securing his second podium in just his third-ever World Cup competition. The Norwegian young gun has been on fire lately, and with this performance he gives a clear signal he’s a one to watch out for in the near future.
“I’m so excited. This is so amazing. It's my third World Cup and placing third is totally amazing. I couldn’t be more excited than this”, said Sateroy after the award ceremony.
FIS Freestyle World Cup action continues on 17th of December with the halfpipe competitions going down in Cooper (USA). The big air World Cup will come back in 2017 with the final Super Series event taking place on 11th of February in Quebec City (CAN).
LINKS:
LADIES RESULTS
MEN RESULTS
Source: fis-ski.com
