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ContestHappening 8 2019 | FWT Andorra

The preliminary decision!

by Tobias Huber 03/12/2019
Victories for Jaclyn Paaso (USA) and Léo Slemett (FRA) among the skiers and Marion Haerty (FRA) and Blake Hamm (USA) among the snowboarders. Marion Haerty (FRA) is already the world champion for sure, Markus Eder and Victor De Le Rue also have a comfortable lead, while the women's skiing remains exciting.

The decision for the cut has been made: After the fourth stop of the FWT 2019 in Ordino-Arcalís, the participants of the final at the Bec des Rosses in Verbier (SUI) as well as the re-qualifiers for the FWT 2020 have been determined. The competition originally scheduled for last weekend was initially postponed due to the snow conditions. As the Pyrenees are not exactly blessed with snow at the moment, the idea was to hold the contest in soft, firn conditions. Unfortunately, wind prevented/delayed the firn-up, so the organizers decided not to take any risks and postponed the contest. As it was the last competition before the cut for Verbier/the coming season, many participants had to put all their eggs in one basket to continue taking part - dangerous or hard conditions would be bad conditions for this and they probably wanted to avoid a contest like the one in Fieberbrunn two years ago, where several participants ended up in hospital.

The second attempt was successful: The fourth FWT tour stop in Andorra could finally be held on Thursday after light snowfall. At Quince Metros, the female and male skiers and snowboarders were able to choose between two starts at 2,570 and 2,530 meters; the finish was at 2,180 meters. The north-east facing slope with an average gradient of 43 degrees offered the participants slightly fewer options than usual when choosing their lines. In acceptable snow conditions, many skiers managed to finish with a similar line, making for an interesting and safe competition.

From a German-speaking perspective, Manuela Mandl (AUT) and Gigi Rüf (AUT) will be in Verbier and therefore also at the FWT 2020, as will Markus Eder and Arianna Tricomi as the current leaders. However, Fabio Studer and Thomas Feurstein from Vorarlberg will have to say goodbye to the FWT circus.

Snowboard men

First place in the snowboarding category went to Blake Hamm (USA), who showed off his freestyle skills with several 360s and 180s. "I'm very happy about the win, the snow conditions and my 360s," said a delighted Blake Hamm. "The slope was just right for my riding style - there were lots of opportunities to do jumps and tricks." Second place went to overall leader Victor De Le Rue (FRA), who performed numerous jumps including a wide 360, but also received points deductions for the landing of his last jump when he had to reach into the snow briefly. Third place went to Davey Baird (USA), who started with a high drop into the slope and landed several jumps safely with his creative line. Thomas Feurstein (AUT) and Gigi Rüf (AUT) were not at the start in Andorra.

Victor De Le Rue (FRA) thus maintains his lead in the overall standings with 7200 points ahead of Davey Baird (USA) with 6160 and Blake Hamm (USA) with 6105 points. Gigi Rüf is qualified for the final in Verbier in fifth place (5290 points), while Thomas Feurstein in eighth place (3425 points) will not make it. In addition, Ludovic Guillot-Diat and Christopher Galvin are no longer qualified. You can find all the riders who qualified for the FWT in the gallery at the end of the article.

Men's skiing

Léo Slemett (FRA) took victory with a fluid run in which he first set three 360s in the upper part of the slope and then followed it up with a classic freeride line with high jumps and wide, fast turns. "It wasn't an easy competition - the conditions weren't perfect, so I had to improvise at the last minute," reported Léo Slemett. "But I had a lot of fun, I skied very fast and now I'm back in the game as third in the rankings!" Defending champion Kristofer Turdell (SWE) came second after a technical start, a backflip, a 360 and a high-speed descent with more jumps. Third place went to Andrew Pollard (USA), who impressed the judges with a 360 and lots of air & style elements. The overall leader Markus Eder (ITA) missed the take-off for a backflip and uncharacteristically crashed during a rather easy maneuver for him. Wadeck Gorak (FRA) performed what was probably the most spectacular maneuver of the day with his backflip (see video below). Downhill takeoff, hard landing, unfortunately not perfectly clean, which prompted the judges to place him fifth. Of course, you could also argue that the backflip was more difficult than Slemett's three small 360s (all turned to the left), but the judges apparently wanted to see a lot of freestyle elements in the men's skiing and were less enthusiastic about riskier maneuvers, at least in the men's skiing.

Markus Eder remains the clear leader in the overall standings with 7200 points. He is followed in second place by Kristofer Turdell, who has collected 5800 points. Léo Slemett is now third with 5180 points. Fabio Studer finished the FWT 2019 in 19th place and is therefore no longer qualified for 2020 for the time being, as are Reine Barkered, Yu Sasaki, Berkeley Patterson, Liam Peiffer, Yann Rausis, Yann Dumax-Baudron, Fabio Studer and Grifen Moller.

Women's snowboard

The women's snowboarding event was won by 2017 world champion Marion Haerty (FRA), who had also won at the FWT stops in Canada and Fieberbrunn. She showed an extremely fluid run with several clean jumps. Second place went to Anna Orlova (RUS), who had won the season opener in Japan and chose a creative line in Andorra. Erika Vikander (USA) came third with a freestyle-oriented run. Defending champion Manuela Mandl (AUT) came fifth. She said after her run: "I was really under pressure today because my qualification for Verbier was not yet certain. That's why I skied very defensively and focused on safety. It wasn't a good run, but I achieved my goal and qualified."

After three wins this season, Marion Haerty is the FWT World Champion with 7500 points. Anna Orlova is second with 6900 points and Manuela Mandl third with 5805 points. "I'm totally happy about my second world title," said a jubilant Marion Haerty. "I chose a run that suited my style at the last minute and it went really well. I had a lot of fun, the snow was great!". Maria Kuzma, Wakana Hama and Nicole Kelly are no longer qualified for 2020.

Women's skiing

Jaclyn Paaso (USA) lived up to her reputation as an experienced big mountain queen and showed the most massive jumps of all skiers. This gave her her first win of the season ahead of defending champion Arianna Tricomi (ITA), who landed two 360s and more jumps. Jacqueline Pollard (USA), the winner of the second FWT stop in Kicking Horse, finished third after a smooth and fast run. Hedvig Wessel (NOR) was ultimately unable to convince the judges with her massive backflip at the start and a speedy line, probably due to not quite clean landings. Once again, the judging caused irritation in the field of riders: While small freestyle tricks were rewarded with a high score in the men's ski category and "charger lines" were left empty-handed, it was the other way around in the women's ski category, where the judges wanted to see the big drops.

In the overall ranking, Arianna Tricomi leads with 6900 points ahead of Jacqueline Pollard with 6680 and Hedvig Wessel (NOR) with 5925 points, with Juliette Willmann, Maude Besse and Ayana Onozuka out.

The replay of the competition and the riders' runs can be found here.

Photo gallery

This article has been automatically translated by DeepL with subsequent editing. If you notice any spelling or grammatical errors or if the translation has lost its meaning, please write an e-mail to the editors.

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