Snowboraders opened the competition of the FIS Junior World Champs 2021. Qualification races in slope style were held today.
In the first attempt, the leadership was taken by the multiple winner and medalist of the European Cup stages Evy Poppe (Belgium). Her program with a variety of amplitude jumps was rated at 86.00 points. Her rival, Sarkipaju Telma (Finland), lost more than six points to the Swiss snowboarder.
Evi Poppe is pleased with her result: “Everything went well, even better than expected. After all, during training, the snow was different, and my results were worse. I am very glad that I managed to land well at the end of the course… Here, at the competitions, everyone performs very well and everyone can be a worthy opponent. But we are, first of all, friends, and it is great to be among friends from different countries. “
It is noteworthy that for the second try, Poppe received absolutely the same mark – 86.00. But this result was unexpectedly surpassed by 14-year-old Yura Murase (Japan). The youngest female snowboarder in the women’s slopestyle at the current world championship received 89.00. And her compatriot Chihiro Edamatsu became the third result in qualification – 82.00 points, pushing the Finnish Sarkipaju to the fourth position.
In addition to these four leaders, Bianca Gisler (Switzerland), Yaroslav Kudryashova, Yesenia Stepanova and Varvara Romanova (all – Russia) made their way to the final.
Bianca Giesler promised that she will definitely compete for medals in the final: “I performed well, I’m happy with my performance. And I am sure that tomorrow I will be able to perform even better, I will even try to win the medals. No matter how it goes on, it’s still very cool – to compete with athletes from all over the planet, race and jump together.”
Moritz Breu (Germany) opened the junior slopestyle qualification and immediately set the bar quite high – 68.00 points. And when the judges rated his performance at 84.00 points in the second attempt. He looks so happy: “I am so excited! I’ve never performed so well in my life! But at these competitions everyone is doing their best, so the fight is still ahead.”
But Nikita Abozovik (Russia) could not overcome the qualification barrier: “It’s a shame, of course, that I haven’t done the whole program … But there is still big air, so we’ll see. There are some tricks, there are chances, so I’m ready. I also compete in the half-pipe, I think there are chances to get to the final. “
The best in one of the two qualifying groups was Sam Vermaat (Netherlands) with 85.50 points: “I am very pleased, my first race was good, better than I expected. I think it will be difficult in the finals, because there are a lot of good athletes here, but I hope I can handle it. I think the main rivals are the Japanese team, they are really good. “
Indeed, the leaders of the qualification were two Japanese athletes who are in the other group: Rikuto Watanabe (92.50) and Taiga Hasegawa (91.00). In total, four representatives of Japan were included in the number of 12 qualified athletes. As for the Russians, only Petr Ershov continues to fight for medals.
Two sets of medals (for men and women) in snowboard in the slopestyle will be awarded tomorrow, March 19, in the daytime competition program.
The competition schedule is published on the ensib.ru website. The tickets for the FIS Junior World Champs 2021 can be purchased at krs.kassir.ru on the events page.
