What a start for Austria’s snowboard cross team into the new World Cup season! With Pia Zerkhold, Jakob Dusek and Alessandro “Izzi” Hämmerle, three ÖSV boarders made it to the grand finale at the Olympic test in Secret Garden (Chn). There the Lower Austrian first grabbed her best World Cup result, before the three-time overall World Cup winner Hämmerle raced to his 13th career victory and Dusek finished fourth.
Five Austrians qualified for the men’s round of 16: Alessandro “Izzi” Hämmerle (6th), Jakob Dusek (8th), Lukas Pachner (11th), Luca Hämmerle (19th) and Julian Lüftner (22nd). However, only four started. The reason: Luca Hämmerle from Vorarlberg fell in the second qualifying heat in the start section and broke two transverse processes in the area of the lumbar vertebrae – how long he will have to pause is still unclear up to about half-time in the front, then had to give way to the Italian Tommaso Leoni, but was able to keep his other two opponents at a distance and confidently made it into the quarter-finals in second. Alessandro Hämmerle and Lukas Pachner also succeeded: They finished first and second in their round of 16 and gave their teammates Julian Lüftner and Swiss Kalle Kobelt no chance as eleventh, qualified for the finals of the best 16. But that didn’t stop there. She got off to a good start in her quarter-final heat and also benefited from an infight between her opponents. The 23-year-old made it into a World Cup semi-finals for the second time in her career as runner-up behind Britain’s Charlotte Bankes, as did Dusek and Izzi Hämmerle, who in each of the past three seasons won the overall World Cup got. Dusek managed to finish second in the first quarter-finals behind the American Nick Baumgartner and thus also prevailed against the Canadian qualifying winner Eliot Grondin. In his run, Hämmerle also finished second behind Omar Visintin (It) – his ÖSV team-mate Pachner retired early in third. Zerkhold’s successful run continued in the semifinals. After both the Canadian Tess Critchlow and the French Chloe Trespeuch fell, they raced to second place behind Bankes and qualified for a grand final for the first time in their career. Jakob Dusek and Izzi Hämmerle followed this example. Both remained victorious in their semifinals and thus made it to the finals. In the finals, Zerkhold unfortunately got off to a very bad start and quickly tore up a large deficit. She couldn’t catch up to the finish either. With fourth place behind the winner Eva Samkova (Tch), Bankes and the Italian Michaela Moioli, the Lower Austrian still got her best World Cup result – that was an eighth place in Valmalenco (It) in January of this year. The men’s final was once more to the big “Izzi” show: With an (almost) start-to-finish victory, the 28-year-old from Vorarlberg won his 13th World Cup victory, ahead of Visintin and Baumgartner. Dusek, who got off to the best start, ended up only in fourth place, which was ungrateful in the final. In the flash interview immediately after the race, Hämmerle’s first thoughts were then about his injured brother. “I dedicate this victory to Luca, who was watching in the hotel,” said the Montafoner emotionally in the hour of success.
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