Pyhä: Polar Cold for the First Para Snowboard Cross of the Season

After more than a month-long break for the Para Snowboard World Cup (the first competition of the season took place in Landgraaf, Netherlands, at the end of November 2023), athletes finally gathered in Pyhä, Finland, to compete in two Snowboard Cross events. Besides the significantly negative temperatures, this stage had the particularity of its course being designed by a former Para Snowboard World Cup athlete, Matti Suur-Hamari (FIN), with the assistance of local course designer, Juha Guttorm. "The race track at Pyhä is a technical and quite high-speed course where you have to have a good tactic. It’s not the longest one on tour, but in quite a short track, we’ve been able to fit quite many features which are challenging the riders’ skills and tactical planning," explains Matti Suur-Hamari. "[…] the most important part is the start. The course is pretty narrow, so there’s not too many passing spots. So, if you’re not front at the start you need to have a good strategy for the rest of the course, what to do and where. I would say those are the challenges over here."

In the Women Upper Limb (UL) category, Polish athlete Monika Kotzian repeated a double victory, thus also securing the leader bib in Snowboard Cross. There were also double victories for Brenna Huckaby Clegg (USA) who triumphed each time ahead of Romy Tschopp (SUI) and her compatriot Dennae Russell (USA) in the Women Lower Limb (LL) category.

On the men's side, the battle for the top spots in the Men UL category was between the same four athletes: Jacopo Luchini (ITA), Maxime Montaggioni (FRA), Mike Minor (USA), and Aron Fahrni (SUI). While the French and American athletes placed second and third in both races, the first Snowboard Cross was won by Jacopo Luchini (ITA), and the second by Swiss athlete Aron Fahrni, marking his first World Cup victory in this discipline. Tyler Turner (CAN), who did not compete in the Banked Slalom races in Landgraaf (NED) at the beginning of the season, secured victory in both Snowboard Cross events ahead of Mike Schultz (USA) and Junta Kosuda (JPN) in the Men LL1 category. Emanuel Perathoner (ITA) remained solid, leading all his runs to record two more victories. Keith Gabel (USA) and Takahito Ichikawa (JPN) completed the podium in the first Snowboard Cross. The next day, the American once again took the podium, finishing third, while the Japanese athlete, third in the semi-final, had to settle for the small final, which he won, thus finishing fifth. Fourth the day before, Ben Tudhope (AUS) won his semi-final and once again reached the grand final, where he was only beaten by the leader of his category.

The next two Snowboard Cross events are on the schedule for the Para Snowboard World Cup in February, this time held in Germany, at Grasgehren.