- Snowboarder Nicolas Huber totaled 150.50 points at the World Championships in Bakuriani and thus took bronze in the Big Air.
- After silver in slopestyle in 2017, this is the second World Championship medal for the man from Zurich.
- The victory goes to the Japanese Taiga Hasegawa, the Norwegian Mons Roisland takes silver. Anna Gasser (AUT) triumphs in the women’s race.
The great tremor for Nicolas Huber only came to an end with the 3rd jump of the very last athlete. But the Canadian Nicolas Laframboise could not match the performance of the Swiss and fell back to fourth place. That left Bronze dry.
At first there was little to indicate Swiss precious metal: Huber was deducted on the first attempt because his hand was in the snow when he landed. The second jump failed him. But when it came down to it, the 28-year-old was able to improve significantly again. He received 89.75 points for his third attempt, approached forwards, with a five-fold turn, in which a lot was right: height, style and also the landing.
Hasegawa in a league of its own
In the Big Air competition, in which the best two jumps count, only two athletes were able to outperform the Swiss. The Japanese Taiga Hasegawa became the superior world champion with a total of 177.25 points. Behind them, silver went to the Norwegian Mons Roisland (157.25). In the end, Huber (150.50) had a cushion of 8.5 points on Laframboise.
“I’m having trouble grasping that. There are just a bit too many emotions », Huber tried to put his performance into words. He’s been working towards such an exploit all season. “It’s so nice that it opens up,” said Huber, who could only hold back the tears with difficulty.
In slopestyle, the Zurich native had to accept a setback in Bakuriani with 16th place. In this discipline he had won silver in the Sierra Nevada 6 years ago.
Gasser wins women’s gold
In the women’s category, victory went to Austria’s Anna Gasser with 162.50 points. She won just ahead of Miyabi Onitsuka (JPN, 161.25) and Tess Coady (AUS, 153.25). There were no Swiss women at the start.