Image: GEPA pictures/ Matic Klansek (GEPA pictures)
Austria’s snowboard star triumphed on Saturday at the World Championship decision in Bakuriani in Georgia in extremely difficult conditions ahead of the Japanese Miyabi Onitsuka and the Australian Tess Coady. The 31-year-old from Carinthia was already the world champion before her last jump. It is her second World Cup gold after 2017.
Gasser took the lead in the first round with the jump that also brought her Olympic gold last year in Beijing – and never gave it up again. The Cab Double Cork 1260 scored 87.75 points. In the second round, Gasser hit a backside double cork 1080, but missed the melon grab. Because Onitsuka was still 1.25 points behind Gasser’s last attempt, Austria’s three-time “Sportswoman of the Year” was able to take full risks in the final for show purposes – and reached into the snow.
“Terrible” training beforehand
“It wasn’t my best tricks to show, but it was enough for today’s conditions,” Gasser said. “It was one of the toughest big airs we’ve ever had – simply because of the weather. We had snow, rain and wind.” With the inrun track slowing down as the competition continued, there were several falls. “We never knew how fast we were,” explained Gasser. “I’m just happy that I landed on my feet.”
Your training beforehand was “terrible”, Gasser described, and the conditions in the final were extremely difficult. “I have the feeling that everyone who competed today went beyond their limit to make this possible,” said the world champion about holding the competition, which was brought forward by one day due to the bad weather forecast for Sunday. “I’m just happy that everyone is healthy. The bonus is that I won.”
The Japanese Taiga Hasegawa won the men’s event. In slopestyle, Gasser finished seventh in Bakuriani. Gold in Big Air is her third World Championship medal. Gasser had won her only world title in 2017 in the Sierra Nevada – also in her prime discipline. In addition, there was silver in slopestyle at the Kreischberg in 2015. There, Austria’s flagship snowboarder also clinched the eleventh and last World Cup victory of her career in January in the Big Air, the first in her own country.
Source: Nachrichten
