Ester Ledecká starts the season with a bang! At the Chinese resort of Mylin, Ester Ledecká left no one in doubt as to who dominates alpine snowboarding. From her first-place qualification to her gold-medal performance in the final, she secured a dominant victory in the opening race of the new season. After finishing first in Saturday's parallel giant slalom, she added a fourth-place finish in the parallel slalom at the opening World Cup, falling in the semi-final and losing just 0.02 seconds in the battle for the bronze medal. This puts her in the lead in the overall standings. The other Czech competitors did not make it to the final.
The Chinese resort of Mylin hosted the first alpine snowboarding World Cup of the new competitive season, with strong Czech representation. The races were held in both parallel disciplines: slalom and giant slalom.
On Saturday, during the qualification, Ledecká beat her Polish rival, Aleksandra Krol-Walas, by more than a second in the parallel giant slalom, and continued her dominant performance in the final. She gained more than three seconds on the Dutch rider Michelle Dekker in the second intermediate time and secured a comfortable passage to the next round.
In the quarter-finals, Ledecká rode in the blue course, gaining almost a second on the Swiss rider Ladina Caviezel. She dominated her semi-final run against the Japanese rider Cubaki Miki by more than half a second.
In the final race, she faced Krol-Walas, who had qualified in second place. However, Ledecká showed that she had no competition in Mylin, even in the final run. The difference of 1.67 seconds in the final run highlighted Ledecká's outstanding performance, earning her 100 World Cup points.
Zuzana Maděrová narrowly missed qualifying for the final races, finishing 17th and losing 0.8 hundredths of a second to the qualifying position. However, considering her injury, which had been bothering her since April and threatened to prevent her from even lining up for the race, this is still a successful start to the new season.
The other two Czech representatives, Adéla Keclíková and Klára Šonková, finished in 30th and 31st place, respectively.
Among the men, Kryštof Minárik achieved the best result, finishing 31st. Adam Počinka was disqualified. The Italian Edwin Coratti won, followed by the Korean Kim Sang-kjom in the final. The third place went to the Korean representative I Sang-ho, and the fourth place to the local Jie Pi.
On Sunday, Ledecká found only one competitor who could beat her: Julie Zogg of Switzerland. She started the final races brilliantly again, gaining more than a second on the Korean Haerim Jeong and more than two seconds on the Italian Jasmin Coratti.
The key moment came in the semi-final race against the Japanese rider Miki, during which Ledecká fell and, despite trying to make up for the lost time, she was unable to catch up to her opponent by the finish line. In the small final, she was only 0.02 seconds behind her qualifying rival, Zogg. The Austrian Sabine Payerová won.
The other Czech competitors failed to reach the final. Maděrová was initially third, even ahead of Ledecká, but a fall in the second run resulted in a final 29th place. Adéla Keclíková finished 31st, and Klára Šonková took 38th place.
Among the men, Kryštof Minárik and Adam Počinek (43rd) did not qualify for the final, finishing in 28th and 43rd place, respectively. The winner was Italian Maurizio Bormolini, who defeated Austrian Benjamin Karl; Gabriel Messner of Italy finished third.
The next World Cup event for alpine snowboarders will be held next weekend in Yanqing, Beijing.
Current World Cup standings (after 2 events):
Women: 1. Ledecká 150, 2. Payerová 145, 3. Mikiová 140, ... 22. Maděrová 16, 35. Keclíková 1.
Men: 1. Bormolini 126, 2. Karl 109, 3. Coratti (Italy) 100, ... 34. Minárik 3.
The Chinese weekend features alpine snowboarding at the Mylin Valley Ski Resort in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, and freestyle snowboarding on the Olympic jump in Beijing as part of the Big Air event.
Both Czech freestyle snowboarders are earning points. Jakub Hroneš finished 18th on the Olympic jump. Kristian Salač, in his first competition of the season, finished 27th.
After a fantastic fifth-place finish in the previous World Cup event in Chur, Switzerland, Jakub Hroneš also achieved a good result at another elite freestyle snowboarding series stop in Beijing. In the Big Air qualification, he finished 11th in his heat and overall took 18th place.
This was Kristian Salač's first World Cup competition of the season in Beijing. In his debut, he earned 120 points and finished 27th overall.
In Sunday's competition, Tormod Frostad of Norway and French skier Tess Ledeux won. Twenty-two-year-old Frostad scored 183.00 points, securing his victory, while Italian Miro Tabanelli finished second, 0.75 points behind. Canadian Dylan Deschamps took third place with 181.00 points.
In the women's competition, Tess Ledeux, the silver medalist at the Beijing Winter Olympics, finished first with 168.25 points, followed by Swiss skier Sarah Hoefflin with 163.00 points, and Italian Flora Tabanelli, 17 years old, finished third.
Source: czech-ski.com/ Xinhua/ gnews - RoZ
Photo: Xinhua/Zhang Chenlin
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