Ester Ledecka was deprived of the golden gift for her 30th birthday tomorrow by a mistake in the beginning of the final race with Japanese Cubaki Miki. Even so, the silver medal completes the collection of medals from this year's world championships. Once again, she proved that she is undoubtedly one of the elite athletes in all of history. Zuzana Maderova advanced from seventh place in the qualification, but after a mistake she dropped out in the quarterfinals. Eighteen-year-old Kryštof Minárik was not able to beat the world champion in the eighth round. This year's champion was surprisingly for the first time Tervel Zamirov from Bulgaria.
Ledecká thus won her fifth medal from the World Snowboarding Championships. She also won gold and silver in 2017 in Sierra Nevada. Ten years ago in Kreischberg she triumphed in the parallel slalom. World Cup winner Miki made up for her two-day-old defeat in the battle for gold.
In February, Ledecká won bronze in the downhill at the World Ski Championships in Saalbach. Thanks to her success in St. Moritz, she became the first skier in history to win medals at two different FIS World Championships in one season.
Compared to the giant slalom, the parallel slalom at the World Championships was a bit different for Ester Ledecka. In qualification, after the first run in which she made a mistake, she was outside the top 16, but in the second run she was already the fastest. She therefore finished sixth in qualification and safely advanced to the final together with Zuzana Maděrová and Kryštof Minárik. It was clear that the competition was much closer than in the giant slalom.
Despite the first heat and the eight-final with Austrian Ankeleová, Ledecká advanced without much difficulty, but in the quarter-final she was met by the three-time world champion, the local Julie Zogg.
Ledecká fought with the home competitor for every millisecond from the opening gate, finally she managed to beat her by 0.47 seconds. In the semi-final she knocked out the Polish Krol-Walasova and at least partially avenged Maděrová, who ended her run on the Pole in the semi-final.
The final duel offered a repeat of the giant slalom final. In the second lane, Miki was again next to Ledecka, who managed to take advantage of the Czech athlete's hesitation at the beginning of the slalom and brought her lead to the finish to win the gold medal. Ledecká thus takes silver in the parallel slalom.
"It was an interesting race. Very difficult, I would say. The conditions, it was quite a challenge, but we fought. I think after qualifying, I got pretty fired up. Unfortunately there was a mistake in the final." Ledecká told Radiožurnál Sport.
Maděrová improved her tenth place from the giant slalom. The biggest success in the senior category was achieved by Minárik, whose best World Cup result is 14th place. He was knocked out in the eighth round by defending champion Andreas Prommegger of Austria, who is a three-time world champion and 26 years older. The other Czech athletes did not make it out of the qualifying round. Klára Šonková was 36th, Adéla Keclíková 38th and male representatives Adam Počinek (DNF) and Filip Mareš (DSQ) did not qualify.
World Snowboarding Championships - parallel slalom:
Women: 1. Miki (Jap.), 2. Ledecká (Czech Republic), 3. Dekkerová (Niz.), 4. Królová-Walasová (Pol.), ...7. Maderova, in qualifying 36. Šonková, 38. Keclíková (all Czech Republic).
Men: 1. Zamfirov (Bulh.), 2. Auner (Rak.), 3. March (It.), 4. Prommegger (Rak.), ...11. Minarik, in the qualification Rest he didn't finish, Maresh (all Czech Republic) disqualified.
czech-ski.com/CTsport/ gnews.cz - RoZ
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