Crans Montana emerges from the storm for EC halfpipe and slopestyle action
Feb 01, 2021·Snowboard Park & Pipe
After an extremely turbulent week of extreme winter weather and delays, and as a result of the tireless effort put in by the local organisers and the park and shaping crews on site, the Crans Montana (SUI) European Cup snowboard halfpipe and slopestyle competitions originally slated to take place last week were finally able to go down under blue skies on Sunday in a huge day of action that also saw freeski halfpipe competition taking place.
SNOWBOARD
The Crans Montana events were part of the Audi Snowboard Series, and both the halfpipe and slopestyle competitions saw a solid mix of World Cup regulars riding alongside up-and-comers from around the world, with some standout riding going down throughout the day in Switzerland.
The women’s halfpipe competition saw Canada’s Elizabeth Hosking taking her first European Cup win with a high score of 95.3 in the finals, followed by Switzerland’s own Berenice Wicki in second with a score of 90.7, and Tessa Maud of the USA rounding out the podium in third with a score of 87.0.
On the men’s side of things it was Germany’s Andre Hoeflich (GER), fresh off a fourth-place finish at the Laax Open 2021 FIS Snowboard World Cup, taking the victory in Crans Montana, earning a score of 94.0 for his first run. Runner-up to Hoeflich was his German countryman Christoph Lechner with a score of 91.7, while the host Swiss squad saw Patrick Burgener hit the podium in third with a score of 89.0.
Over in the women’s slopestyle competition it was reigning Lausanne 2020 Youth Olympic Games gold medalist Evy Poppe of Belgium taking the win, with the 16 year-old putting down a top score of 85.3. 14 year-old Mia Brookes of Great Britain claimed second place with a score of 81.7, while Lucie Silvestre of France top score of 72.0 was good enough for third place.
The men’s slopestyle competition was by far the hardest-fought of the day, with 75 riders dropping in on the competition and dozens amongst those riders holding lengthy Word Cup CVs.
Standing at the top of the podium by the end of the day would be Switzerland’s Nicolas Huber with a score of 94.7. That mark would be just enough to edge the 94.0 best run Germany’s Leon Vockensperger, who came into Crans Montana fresh off of his first-ever World Cup podium in Laax, where he also finished in second. Third place for the men’s slopestyle competition would go to Jonas Junker, for the fourth podium of the day for the Swiss team.
FREESKI
While the slopestyle portion of the freeski programme in Crans Montana, originally scheduled to take place on Thursday, was the one contest that was fully, and unfortunately, cancelled due to all the difficulties presented by the weather throughout last week, the halfpipe event was able to take place on Sunday. While we saw fairly limited numbers on the freeski side of things, Saori Suzuki of Japan and Robin Briguet of Switzerland taking the respective women’s and men’s victories.
Next up for on 2020/21 FIS Snowboard European Cup calendar for Park & Pipe will be big air and slopestyle competitions, slated to hit Serbia’s Kapaonik from the 8th to 9th of February.
