FIS Junior World Champs 2021 hosted a qualifications in snowboard half pipe today, on March 22.
Two Russians women competed in the third discipline in a row – Yaroslava Kudryashova and Varvara Romanova. However, the Swiss snowboarders set the tone for the competition: Isabelle Loetscher scored 76.50 points in the first run, Elena Schuetz – half a point less.
However, in the second run, Manon Kaji from Japan claimed leadership in the race by getting 83 points and pushed aside the Swiss. But that’s not all! With her third run, Isabelle Loetscher got 85.00 points and won the qualification. Of course, this is not a victory yet, but the Swiss got a an advantage over the rivals.
Of course, Isabelle Loetscher was happy with her performance: “All three runs were good. Today I was just in shock! I was very glad to run down the course with other participants. Also everyone was very kind to me. Probably all these things made a difference. I would like to wish all the athletes good luck! They are all wonderful! I hope no one gets injured in the final, and everyone will show everything they are capable of. And I want to say that everything is just perfect at the world championships – starting from the courses and everything that surrounds them. I’d like to thank the organizers of the competitions. “
The Russians did not fight for leadership. Diana Fedchenko reached the final from the 4th place, Varvara Romanova – from 5th, Yaroslav Kudryashova – from 6th.
Nevertheless, Diana Fedchenko does not lose hope of fighting for medals: “I am happy with my result. In the beginning I was a little nervous, but during the race I felt euphoria, I wanted to run more and more. Who will win the final? Everything is possible. Although, as for me personally, I still need to work and work very hard.”
Pyotr Ershov, Igor Tarakanov, Daniil Stepanov from Russia and Jan Matteoli from Italy, after performing in slope style and big air, went to the start of the half pipe. So these four athletes closed the protocols in all three soft snowboard disciplines. Only Tarakanov out of these four managed to get to the podium (3rd place in big air). He performed better than everyone mentioned above in the first run, but ended up only in 6th place. And the leadership was taken by Shigeno Shuichiro, whose performance was estimated at 91 points by the judges.
In the second run, Jonas Hasler (Switzerland) got 84.25 points getting closer to the leaders. Another athlete, Kaishu Nakagawa, completed his program with 93.25 points. Shuihiro got 95.75 in the third run!
Although Jonas Hasler got the third place in qualification, looked satisfied: “It was just amazing! This is my biggest competition in the past year. Thanks for the course, the quality is perfect, you can jump very high on this halfpipe. I wish other athletes to be healthy and we will fight in the final! “
Russian snowboarders weren’t that successful. Igor Tarakanov, Daniil Stepanov and Pyotr Ershov reached the final with 8th, 9th and 10th places, respectively.
The final halfpipe competition will take place in Sopka cluster tomorrow, on March 23. The competition schedule is published on the ensib.ru website. Tickets can be purchased at krs.kassir.ru on the event page.
