Ischgl at its best — that's what the participants of the season's first parallel slalom experienced when the second stop of the Nokia Snowboard FIS World Cup went off today. The resort is fully booked as the resort's official season opening is also happening this weekend, culminating in a huge Cuban party Saturday night with all the pubs, bars and discos decorating Cuban-style and blasting a lot of Samba and Mambo. However, the riders might not have a chance to take part in the celebration since head-to-head racing is scheduled for three consecutive days which requires all of their entire attention.
The French were the ones to dominate today in the parallel slalom with Mathieu Bozzetto and Karine Ruby claiming a French double. "Mr. Bombastic" Bozzetto, who was not at the start two weeks ago in Tignes, France, because he was still recovering from a knee injury, made his season opening a perfect one today. After he had finished first in qualifiers, he continued through the finals and was the only rider who could win all of his runs today (a total of nine.)
"This was just a perfect comeback," he stated. "I never expected something like this to happen. After a break of two months I was only training yesterday and the day before, so this result is unbelievable! I have put some snow on my knee to cool it and I wasn't sure if it would work, but I had two or three terrific runs in the finals and felt just great!"
Slovenia's Dejan Kosir also looked very strong today and almost caught up with the French when he finished the first final dual at just seven hundredths of a second behind Bozzetto, but he did not succeed to make up the time in the second run and took silver.
"I went for a safe run in the qualifiers to avoid missing the final, but my goal was to let go and attack. I kept my concentration throughout the race and really started to attack once I had made it to the final dual, but I had some problems with the grip in the second run and fell," said Kosir.
France's Nicolas Huet and Richard Rikardsson from Sweden faced each other in the consolation round with Huet setting the pace at 57 hundredths of a second in the first run. The Swede could not catch Huet in the second run and pulled 4th.
"I am glad I made it to third place," Huet said. "But both Mathieu and I did regret that we already met in the semi-finals. It would have been nice to experience the final dual. It really was a consolation. The French finally claimed the win and we proved that none of the other nation's riders are able to beat us on this slope."
Karine Ruby contributed to the Frenchies dominance by winning the women's race. "I was so disappointed when I dropped out in the giant slalom at Tignes when I had the finish in sight," she explained. "But slalom is different. I did not know what to expect so it is great I made it. I was really motivated and it's nice that all the summer training paid off today."
Sweden's Sara Fischer from Sweden faced Ruby in the dual for first place and looked as if she might win when she finished one hundredth of a second ahead of her in the first run, but she did not manage to repeat her performance in the second run, and had to leave the gold with Ruby.
Marion Posch from Italy finished 3rd ahead of France's Isabelle Blanc. "That was a good start in my favorite discipline," Posch said. "I could not conclude last season further to a crash in the penultimate race so today's result is very important to me."
Saturday and Sunday offer the opportunity for the riders to check their skills in the parallel giant slalom which will replace the regular giant slalom at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
— Britta Semmler, MountainZone.com Correspondent
