An ÖSV double victory was achieved on Saturday at the end of the Snowboard World Cup in Lackenhof in Lower Austria. In the giant slalom mixed team competition, the experienced Claudia Riegler/Andreas Prommegger won 0.47 seconds ahead of their team mates Sabine Schöffmann and Alexander Payer. This means that there were a total of four podium places for the ÖSV at the Ötscher World Cup premiere.
On the previous day Julia Dujmovits and Payer finished second and third respectively in the parallel giant slalom. three occupied. While Sebastian Kislinger’s Dujmovits had to settle for 7th place on Saturday, Austria brought the remaining two teams into the big final. After a mistake by Payers girlfriend Schöffmann, the 81 year old experienced riders asserted themselves relatively clearly on the thistle piste.
“Winning a World Cup is always a huge success,”said the current double World Champion Prommegger (37) after his first joint success with the 44-year-old Riegler,”Claudia has always put forward tremendously,”praised the Salzburg-based man. Riegler was doubly enthusiastic:”We spent most of the time on the rather hanging and thus slower course.”
Payer, currently the strongest Austrian in the World Cup, packed the defeat into a joke:”Today, age has won before beauty,”said the Carinthian,”but you can lose against the two of them, you really can’t complain about a second place in the World Cup”.
The parallel World Cup now continues in Austria. In a week (12th/13th week) Bad Gastein is the scene of slalom under floodlight and again a mixed team competition, but this time again in slalom.
The Lackenhof organisers took a positive balance and were rewarded after several heavy rainy days with good weather on the competition days. The plan is to appear regularly every two years in the World Cup calendar.