Nighttime Snowboard Parallel Slalom In Moscow This Weekend
The FIS Snowboard alpine World Cup returns to one of the world’s great metropolises this weekend for the first time since 2016, for parallel slalom action on Saturday and a PSL team event slated to go down on Sunday - a first for the Russian venue.
Moscow has been a FIS Snowboard alpine World Cup host dating back nearly a decade to the 2009/10 season, and now that the World Cup has returned, the Russians Snowboard Federation plans on playing host to snowboard racing far into the future as they continue to develop and improve the Moscow venue located just outside the city centre. While this season the construction of the slope in Moscow will be a combination of scaffold and earthen slope, in the near future the course there will be a permanent, World Cup-caliber earthworks installation.
The typically speedy Russian team will be looking to breathe some life into their collective season on home soil in Russia this weekend, as so far they have earned but one World Cup podium in 2018/19, to Natalia Soboleva last weekend in Rogla (SLO).
Russia will be looking athletes like Soboleva and PGS junior world champion Milena Bykova on the ladies side, and men like Andrey Sobolev and alpine junior double world champion Dmitry Loginov to have strong performances this weekend on home soil.
Since no athlete on the ladies’ side has been able to string more than two podiums together this season, and none have been able to win two competitions in a row, making bold predictions ahead of this weekend’s competitions is difficult
Aside from Soboleva, the hot athletes on the ladies’ side coming into Moscow after last weekend’s competition in Rogla are a pair of Germans, in Selina Joerg and Cheyenne Loch, who took first and third places in Slovenia. Also to watch out for is Patrizia Kummer, who has three previous podiums in Moscow, and Claudia Riegler, who has a previous victory in Moscow as well as a win at the lone PSL competition we’ve had so far this season, in Bad Gastein (AUT).
World Cup leader Ester Ledecka (CZE) will again not be competing in this weekend’s competitions as she focuses on Alpine Skiing ahead of the upcoming world championships, where she has decided to compete in skiing instead of at the Utah 2019 FIS Snowboard, Freestyle & Freeski World Championships, which begin in one week’s time.
On the men’s side, the big squad to watch out for is sure to be the Italian team and - most specifically - Roland Fischnaller.
Fischnaller has a podium in all six of the Moscow World Cups in the venue’s history, including three victories and three third place results. Few athletes on tour have been as dominant as Fischnaller has in Moscow, and as we find him entering the Russian competition in the midst of another strong season in which he currently sits third on the World Cup leaderboard, count on Fischnaller to be in the mix come time for the last rounds of finals on Saturday.
It’s not just Fischnaller that’s running hot for the Italians though, as his teammates Edwin Coratti and Daniele Bagozza went 1-2 last weekend in Rogla with some strong riding. World Cup parallel overall leader Benjamin Karl comes into Moscow having missed the podium for the first time this season in Rogla, but with three previous podiums at the venue, as well as being a member of the top PSL team of the season so far with Daniela Ulbing, expect Karl to be in the news this weekend as well.
After the Karl/Ulbing pairing, there’s more promise for the Italians in Moscow, as Nadya Ochner and Aaron March earned runner-up honours at this season’s lone PSL team competition in Bad Gastein. Meanwhile, Patrizia Kummer and Dario Caviezel looked strong in their third-place finish in Bad Gastein, and with Kummer’s strong history at the venue they could pose a threat, as well.
Racing in Moscow gets underway on Saturday with the individual qualification/elimination rounds beginning at 14:00 local time, before nighttime finals under the lights at 18:30. Sunday’s team competition, meanwhile, heads straight into knockout rounds, once again at 18:30.
