Ulbing and Karl win parallel slalom team event in Piancavallo

The third parallel mixed team competition of the 2021/22 season took place on Sunday to wrap up a highly successful weekend of the FIS Snowboard Alpine World Cup action in Piancavallo (ITA).

Straight from Saturday’s individual PSL event that saw Julie Zogg (SUI) and Marc Hofer (ITA) walk away with big wins, the world’s best athletes were back in racing mode on Sunday for what was another prime display of top-level snowboarding in a thrilling team competition format.

And after another intensive day of racing on the challenging slope in Piancavallo, it was Daniela Ulbing and Benjamin Karl of Austria, who stormed their way through to snag their first victory of the season, which also was third top spot for the Austrian Snowboard Team in parallel team competitions in 2021/22.

Ulbing and Karl won their races against the likes of Italy’s Jasmin Coratti and Gabriel Messner, Switzerland’s Ladina Jenny and Nevin Galmarini before winning the semi-final heat against their compatriots Sabine Schoeffmann and Alexander Payer by the smallest of margins of 0.02 sec. Despite a superb ride from Payer who crossed the line with over 0.17 advantage over Karl, it was Ulbing who took control of the latter half of the race as she managed to close the gap and secure a place for her and Karl in the big final.

Once there Ulbing and Karl, who won the respective Olympic silver and gold medals in Beijing, faced the Italian duo of yesterday’s runner-up in the individual competition Edwin Coratti and Nadya Ochner. And once again it was Ulbing, who had to give her best after Coratti finished the men’s part 0.17 ahead of Karl. Ulbling, hower, was really on another level on Sunday, quickly catching Ochner and soon after she was confidently leading the race for another huge win for the Austrian team.