Bakuriani 2023 big air golds go to Gasser and Hasegawa
Mar 04, 2023·Snowboard Park & Pipe
Snowboard action at the Bakuriani 2023 FIS Freestyle, Snowboard and Freeski World Championships closed out with a bang on Saturday afternoon at the big air venue, where Austrian legend Anna Gasser and rising Japanese star Taiga Hasegawa were able to put the landing gear down in some tough conditions to walk away as the final FIS Snowboard World Champions of 2023.
Saturday’s competition pretty much had it all weather-wise, with occasional rain, snow, sun, wind, fog and whatever else the mountains at Didveli could throw at the competitors, but at the end of the day the world’s best rose to the occasion and we saw some incredible riding.
GASSER WINS SECOND CAREER BIG AIR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS TITLE
Anna Gasser has won pretty much everything there is to win in snowboarding, and on Saturday the 31-year-old drew on her experience to show once again why she’s considered to be one of the greatest to ever do it.
Gasser went all-in on her first run of the finals, dropping the cab double cork 1260 melon that she landed for the first time in competition at Beijing 2022 to win Olympic gold.
Earning a score of 87.75 for her first trick, Gasser already had what would be the highest-scoring jump of the competition already in the bag, and on run two she was able to put down a perfect - if somewhat safe, by her standards - double cork 1080 melon to head into run three with the lead in the contest and the honours of the final drop-in of the women’s competition.
When none of her other competitors could match her two-jump score of 162.50, Gasser was able to run a victory lap, and while she’d end up falling on another go-round on the backside dub 1080, her job was already done, and she would claim Bakuriani 2023 big air gold to go along with her previous title from the Sierra Nevada 2017 World Championships.
“It was really tough conditions out here today and practice didn’t go my way at all,” a relieved Gasser said from the finish area, “Everyone who competed today went to their limits to make this happen. We had snow, we had rain, we had wind and I’m just happy I landed on my feet. It wasn’t the best tricks I can do, but it was enough for today’s conditions.”
Second place and the silver medal would go to Japan’s Miyabi Onitsuka, who would earn her second podium at these World Championships after taking slopestyle bronze on Monday. Stomping a frontside 1080 melon on run one, and then needing her third and final run to put down a clean backside double 1080 Weddle grab, Onituka would earn a combined score of 161.25 on her way to silver.
On top of that, with her two Bakuriani 2023 podiums this week Onitsuka moves into a tie with Zoi Sadwoski-Synnott (NZL) and Seppe Smits (BEL) with five World Championships top threes, with those three tied for the most World Champs freestyle snowboard competition history.
Taking home the bronze medal would be Australia’s Tess Coady, as the 22-year-old who also won slopestyle bronze at Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games stomped a backside double cork 1080 Indy in run one and followed that up with a frontside 900 tail grab in run two for a score of 153.25 and the second World Championships podium of her career.
HASEGAWA GOES 1800 TWICE FOR FIRST JAPANESE BIG AIR GOLD
Over on the men’s side of things it was an absolutely dominant performance from 17-year-old ripper Taiga Hasegawa, who would end up fully 20 points ahead of his nearest competitor on his way to the first-ever big air gold for a Japanese snowboarder.
Hasegawa is known to be able to confidently spin 1800s all four ways (frontside and backside, both switch and regular) and on Saturday he showed off two of those 18s on his way to victory, first going switch frontside 1800 Weddle grab for a score of 90.00, and then following that up with the regular frontside version for 87.25 points, ending up with a combined total of 177.25 that would not be approached.
While a translator was brought to the finish to help ask Hasegawa about becoming the first ever Japanese big air World Champion, when it came time to answer Hasegawa elected to grab the mic out of the interviewer’s hand and make his statement in English: “I’m so happy. Super happy. Thank you everyone.”
Second place and the first World Championships podium of his impressive career went to Mons Roisland of Norway, as last season’s Park & Pipe overall crystal globe winner stomped a first hit frontside 1800 frontside grab and then followed that up with a backside 1620 melon on run two for a score of 157.25.
Roisland was the first of three Norwegians who would take the podium in big air competition on Saturday, although the next two would come in the freeski competition that followed immediately after snowboard.
Finally, the podium was rounded out by the inimitable Nicolas Huber of Switzerland, who started out his day with frontside triple cork 1620 tail grab on run one, and then stomped the second-highest scoring trick of the day when he went all-in on a massive backside 1800 nose grab on run two for a score of 89.75. Huber would finish just back of Roisland with a score 150.50 for bronze.
While Huber has not scored a World Cup podium in 40 starts, he now has two World Championships medals, adding his Bakuriani 2023 big air bronze to his Sierra Nevada 2017 slopestyle silver.
With the awards all said and done and the hardware handed out, the Bakuriani 2023 World Championships came to a close for the snowboarders, and it was off the hill and out into a Saturday evening in Bakuriani that was sure to be legendary.
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