Daniela Ulbing won the women’s non-Olympic parallel slalom on Tuesday, and there was even a historic four-fold success in the men’s competition. Arvid Auner won on the Buchebenhang ahead of Benjamin Karl, Alexander Payer and Lukas Mathies. Auner achieved his first World Cup success with a clear final victory over his roommate Karl. “It’s really great to be in the grand finale and then to win,” said the 24-year-old Styrian in an interview with ORF. “It has already become apparent,” said his experienced friend Karl. “We were training here last week and he took one to one and a half seconds off us on every run. The win is more than deserved,” said Karl.
Auner narrowly defeated Canadian Arnaud Gaudet in the quarterfinals and Mathies in the semifinals. Karl had prevailed against Payer, who was just ahead of Mathies in the race for third place. Five Austrians had made it to the quarter-finals, in which only Andreas Prommegger was eliminated. The veteran, who had won the only previous PLS this season, had to admit defeat to Payer.
Ulbing, whose star rose as an 18-year-old with the success in Bad Gastein 2017, celebrated her fourth World Cup victory in individual (3 x PSL, 1 x PGS). The fastest in the qualification prevailed against her teammate Julia Dujmovits in the semifinals and clearly won against Ramona Theresa Hofmeister in the final. The Carinthian had already won the final against the German at PSG in Carezza. “If it is set as quickly as it is today, it definitely suits me. I also really like the steep in Bad Gastein,” Ulbing explained in an interview with ORF.
Dujmovits had to admit defeat to the Russian Natalja Sobolewa in the small final and finished fourth. Sabine Schöffmann just dropped out in the quarter-finals, 48-year-old Claudia Riegler was the only ÖSV runner to fail in the qualification.
It was the perfect start to the Austria Week for Alpine Boarders with the PSL mixed team competition in Gastein on Wednesday (1 p.m.) and the Olympic dress rehearsal in the parallel giant slalom (PGS) on Friday at the Simonhöhe in Carinthia.
Source: Nachrichten
