Season takes shape with PGS back in the spotlight in Scuol
Jan 13, 2023·Alpine Snowboard
Moving swiftly on from the dramatic scenes in Bad Gastein (AUT) on Tuesday and Wednesday where the second parallel slalom and mixed team events of the season took place, the snowboard alpine athletes have hot-footed it over to Scuol, Switzerland, for the third parallel giant slalom of the season.
Taking place on Saturday (14 January), the riders will continue to jostle for the top positions as the 2022/23 World Cup heats up.
Daniela Ulbing (AUT) is the in-form rider in the women’s edition, sitting on 216 points after four of 13 races to lead the overall standings. The tally has come courtesy of first and third in the two PSL races but the Olympic silver medallist in PGS will need to improve her results in the longer discipline – having achieved seventh and 13th so far this season – to remain on top of the pile.
Second overall but leader in PGS with 150 points heading to Scuol is Slovenia’s Gloria Kotnik who will be buzzing having claimed a first-ever World Cup podium with a win in Cortina D’Ampezzo (ITA) in December. Michelle Dekker (NED) who claimed the first PGS of the season in Carezza (ITA) was also a first-time World Cup winner and sits third in the discipline’s rankings (114 points) behind Poland’s Aleksandra Krol (120 points).
The marked improvement of Ramona Theresia Hofmeister will not be lost on those ahead of her. The four-time overall winner has been managing a back injury in the early stages but a fifth place in the PSL in Bad Gastein, and within a whisker of claiming first alongside Stefan Baumeister in the team event, the German looks ominous. The near three-week festive break appears to have helped the 26-year-old Olympic bronze medallist who is still in the mix for a fourth-consecutive overall title.
Sabine Schoeffmann (GER), who won the opening PSL of this season on home snow in Winterberg will be looking to repeat her triumph on this hill last year, while the second- and third-place finishers in 2022, Julie Zogg and Ladina Jenny will be hoping to give local fans something to cheer. Megan Farrell (CAN) will also be hoping to copy her achievement in the second PGS of the season, when she claimed third in Cortina.
In the men’s competition, the ongoing battle of snowboard alpine icons, Andreas Prommegger (AUT) and Roland Fischnaller (ITA) is a mouth-watering prospect. In the previous PGS in Cortina in December, the pair who have 42 World Cup victories between them, battled it out in the big final with the Italian coming out on top in front of a delirious home crowd. With the Austrian bagging the first PGS win of the season in Carezza, he sits atop the PGS with 180 points, while Fischnaller is 20 points behind on 160.
Prommegger also heads the overall table on 234 points while, after failing to progress to the knockout stage in Bad Gastein, Fischnaller has recorded 193 points overall so far and has some work to do.
Alexander Payer sits just two points behind his compatriot Prommegger in the overall rankings (232) while Maurizio Bormolini (ITA) is positioned 18 points further back on 214 following a comprehensive win in Bad Gastein.
There’s quite the gap to Switzerland’s Dario Caviezel (102 points) and Italy’s Aaron March (100 points), so if they are going to have a crack at being crowned the best all-rounder come season’s end, a good points haul in Scuol is vital.
After a forgettable season so far, last year’s overall champion, Lee Sangho (KOR), sits 17th.
The next races are in Bansko, Bulgaria the weekend of 21-22 January with PGS and PSL races, respectively. The riders then travel to Blue Mountain, Canada 26-27 January for two more PGS disciplines before a break for the World Championships taking place in Bakuriani, Georgia from 19 February to 5 March.
The World Cup then returns, taking in Livigno (ITA) – home of the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympic Winter Games snowboard and freestyle events – on 11-12 March, Rogla (SLO) on 15 March, with the concluding weekend hosted in Berchtesgaden (GER) 18-19 March.
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