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The journey for a later Freeride World Tour career starts with valuable points in the 1 and 2 star contests. The "bowl-like" wide face of the Wiedersberger Horn is described in the scene as the optimal terrain for fast, playful runs. In between you will always find one or the other cliff, which brings valuable points for the final result.
This year's schedule boasts five stops in five different countries, with two finals events and a two-run format in Fieberbrunn, where riders' top score will count towards their result. To up the pressure even more, and to reward those with the nerves – and legs – of steel, 12,500 points for first place (instead of 10,000) will again be up for grabs in the FWT finals events.
So far this season, riders in every category have shown the world why they are the best of the best, pushing the limits and each other to new extremes. The ski men's category is extremely tight, with reigning FWT World Champion, Maxime Chabloz (SUI), sitting on top just 80 points clear of rookie Max Hitzig (GER). Ludovic Guillot-Diat (FRA) and Molly Armanino (USA) in the snowboard men's and ski women's categories, respectively, have narrow leads over the rest of the field, while Katie Anderson (CAN) – snowboard women – is sitting comfortably ahead after two spectacular wins.
Three premieres went down in the Open Faces books: Olivia Riedl caused cheers in the snowboard women's category with two backflips in her competition run and both a double frontflip and a double backflip in men's categories showed the insane level at this 1* qualifier contest.
Snowboard Men
Sebastian Kepplinger and Philipp Lanjus ensured an Austrian double victory in the category of snowboard men. Kepplinger showed a self-confident run from start to finish and delivered many jumps. Despite a short „butt-check" after a huge 360 over the first kicker, he followed up with a backflip over the second kicker and secured first place.
Snowboard Women
With a lead of more than 10 points on the second-placed Martina Matula from Slovakia, the Austrian Olivia Riedl was able to repeat her victory from the previous year and amazed the crowd when she showed two backflips in her run. Not only did she ensure a superior victory, but is also the first woman to show a (or rather two) backflip in an Open Faces Freeride competition!
Ski Women
Local hero" Vicky Candlin was able to claim a home win after her last year's third place. Candlin did a smooth run with safe cliff drops and good speed until the finish and was rewarded for her clever choice of line.
Ski Men
As freshly crowned Vice World Champion at the Freeride Junior World Championships in Kappl almost 3 weeks ago, the German Tiemo Rolshoven, who lives in Vorarlberg, once again proved his class. He opted for a clever line which earned him a lot of points and presented his „airs" with safe technique. Garnished with a „720", he got a top score and took the lead in the field of ski men's category.
Making it through as top performers in the men’s division, we can’t look past the Brazilians Manoel Soares and Carlos Mario, clearly at home in these lagoon and warm wind conditions. They were the only two riders to break 30 point heat scores – with relentlessly smooth technicality. Just before the Brazilians ended the day on a high, yesterday's challenger, Gianmaria Coccoluto, held off Arthur Guillebert, Adeuri Corniel and Robin Goetebuer in his quarterfinal. Swiss star Maxime Chabloz was challenged in the quarterfinals by German Finn Flugal, who is only 13 years old. The young teenager put up an impressive fight, but failed to reach the 5.90 on his seventh and final trick attempt, which he needed to put Maxime under pressure again and secure second place.
In the women's event, Bruna Kajiya achieved the highest score of the day (22.73) and won the first round thanks to an amazingly close chance just before the end, which she somehow held on to with 7.30 points! Nathalie Lambrecht unfortunately lost to Bruna in this round, but managed to beat Alexandra Torres and Estefania Rosa in her subsequent individual round and was the second highest scorer of the day with 19.33.
The route was full of steep, technical and spectacular coastal trails that pushed the riders to their limits – the riders mastered a total of 265 km with 6100 meters of climbing. Some of the world's best riders from 30 countries competed, among them 2021 World Champion Andreas Seewald (GER), the current Cape Epic champions Georg Egger (GER) and Lukas Baum (GER), as national champions like Martin Stosek (CZE), Wout Alleman (BEL) and Hans Becking (NED). After four tough days of racing it was once again Georg Egger (GER), winner of the 2022 Mediterranean Epic, who proved to be the strongest, riding to solo victory in the general classification. In the women's race, Luisa Daubermann (GER) was the surprise of this year's Mediterranean Epic. She rode a flawless race without faltering and claimed the victory in the overall classification.
Both women teams started the game very strong and presented an attractive game with many defenses. The Swiss were able to gain a small lead, although it was never bigger than 4 points. During almost the full game duration of 3x 15 minutes the Swiss women were slightly in front. However, the Italian girls kept on fighting and, rightly, believed in their chances. In the last few minutes of the game, they managed to take the advantage and at the final whistle they had won the game by 2 points: 50-48.
In the final of the men's category, the line up was identical than in the women's game: Switzerland vs Italy. The two teams know each other very well and in the last final they met, at the European Championship in the United Kingdom in August, Italy had won the game. This time the Swiss wanted revanche and were ready for the meeting. Both teams showed, in front of several hundred spectators, an outstanding level of play. The Swiss did believe in their chances to win the game, but at the end, it was Italy who claimed the win on the result on 76 – 73.
On Sunday, March 12, 2023, more than 14,000 athletes will compete in the 53rd edition of the Engadin Skimarathon, the second largest cross-country skiing event in the world and the largest cross-country skiing event in Switzerland. Among the large crowd of participants are also world-class runners.
What awaits them on this day in the high valley are 42 strenuous kilometers over frozen lakes, past typical Engadine villages and through a picturesque Swiss Alpine landscape. The best will complete the course in a time of around 1.5 hours.
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