Freestyle skiing: ski-crosser Eckert wins at Pyeongchang dress rehearsal

After the loss of medal hopeful Heidi Zacher, ski-crosser Paul Eckert jumped into the breach at the Olympic dress rehearsal in Nakiska/Canada and clinched the first World Cup victory of his career.

At the last Skicross World Cup before the Winter Games in Pyeongchang (9. till 25. February) the 27-year-old won the first German men’s success since Andreas Schauer (9. January 2015). All in all, it was only the fourth triumph for the DSV’s ski crossers.

“That was really exhausting,”said Paul Eckert,”I am of course very happy about my first victory. I really like it here.”

Eckert’s best finishes so far in the Olympic Winter were two tenth places in San Candido/South Korea and Arosa/Switzerland.

Junior World Champion Florian Wilmsmann (Hartpenning) and Daniel Bohnacker (Gerhausen) had already retired in the round of sixteen, German women were not at the start. Heidi Zacher had a torn cruciate ligament in the middle of January in training in Idrefjäll, Sweden.