Nadyrshina and Karl write history with PSL victories in Rogla

The second and final day of the 2021 FIS Snowboard Alpine World Championships went down on Tuesday in extraordinary fashion, as Sofia Nadyrshina (RSF) and Benjamin Karl (AUT) took victories in the parallel slalom event, while putting some impressive milestones into history of alpine snowboarding.

For the second straight day the organising committee in Rogla rose to the occasion and provided a world-class course and competition venue, while the weather played along just one more time with perfect blue skies and top snow conditions, allowing the world’s best riders to deliver an exciting showcase of top snowboard racing. 

Starting with the women’s event it was Sofia Nadyrshina, who after claiming PGS’s silver medal on Monday, stepped things up a notch on Tuesday and went for gold to become the youngest World Champion in snowboard alpine history, at the age of 17.  

Nadyrshina was on a mission all day long, setting the fastest time already in qualification rounds, just to storm through her final heats, besting Sabine Schoeffmann (AUT) and Julia Dujmovits (AUT), before coming with a little redemption to Selina Joerg (GER) in the semi-finals.

Then in the big final match-up Nadyrshina went against the reining World Cup champion Ramona Theresia Hofmeister (GER), and while the German riders did all she could to challange Nadyrshina in fight for gold, the 17-year-old was simply unbeatable on the day. 

Right from the starting gate, Nadyrshina quickly build up a visible advantage, forcing Hofmeister to chase her from behind. Hofmeister did try to close the gap, but a couple of tiny mistakes would result in Nadyrshina actually increasing the gap so much that she was able to raise her hand to celebrate the victory with two more gates to go in the race.

“I just couldn’t be any happier right now,” said Nadyrshina through a translator after claiming her second World Championships medal in Rogla, “It’s hard to put it into words, because it’s just my first World Championships start and to win two medals here is just so unbelievable.”