Austria’s dramatic team win delights Bad Gastein home crowd

An opportunity for the home nation to claim two positions in the top three – courtesy of an appearance in the small final by Alex Payer and Sabine Schoeffmann, the individual winners in the opening PSL race of the season in Winterberg – was dashed after the Swiss duo of Dario Caviezel and Julie Zogg bagged third spot.

Caviezel set them on course for the win with an explosive launch from the start gate, piling the pressure on his rival in the second half of the race. Payer, who was second yesterday, was able to close the gap but his partner Sabine Schoeffmann fell, leaving Zogg to cross the line first.

The semi-finals were equally as dramatic as each pair hustled for the big final spots. Caviezel again flew out the starting gate, resulting in a half-a-second lead heading into the women’s race but Ulbing pulled back Zogg, winning the tie by just two hundredths of a second.

In the second semi-final, the midway split was 0.27s in favour of Austria but a resurgent Hofmeister, who struggled early season with a back injury, got Germany back in front to take the win by 0.04s.

The winners of the team event in Winterberg, Ladina Jenny and Gian Casanova of Switzerland 2 – who both claimed their first ever World Cup wins – were knocked out in the quarter finals by just 0.18s this time around by Payer and Shoeffmann.

The pair finished seventh this time out just ahead of Italy’s in-form Maurizio Bormolini, winner of the men’s PSL race yesterday, and team-mate Elisa Caffont. Their compatriots, Aaron March and Lucia Dalmasso finished fifth after a storming run by Baumeister left the Italians unable to recover.

Oskar Kwiatkowski and Alexandra Krol made history in the season-opener, claiming Poland’s first ever podium place in the team competition with third. The duo were unable to make the semi-finals this time around, knocked out by Caviezel and Zogg by just 0.15s.

Just one World Cup team event remains, the third and final edition taking place in Berchtesgaden, Germany on 19 March.

The closeness of the riding also bodes well for an exciting mixed team competition at the 2023 FIS Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski World Championships taking place on 22 February. The women’s and men’s parallel giant slalom competition will be on 19 February, followed by parallel slalom on 21 February.

Bad Gastein FIS World Cup team results 2023

1 Austria 1 Andreas Prommegger and Daniela Ulbing
2 Germany 1 Stefan Baumeister and Ramona Theresia Hofmeister
3 Switzerland 2 Dario Caviezel and Julie Zogg
4 Austria 2 Alex Payer and Sabine Schoeffmann