Veronika Widmann is in the final. © Social Media

Widmann trembles into the final in Leogang

Veronika Widmann advanced to the finals of the Downhill World Cup in Leogang, Austria. A significant improvement in her performance was crucial.

June 06, 2025

From: leo

The newly introduced qualifying format gave the Tramin native a second chance on Friday. Widmann finished only 16th in the first round (the top ten advanced directly to the final). She fared significantly better in the second round, which took place three hours later, placing fourth. This placed her 14th in the final of the top 15. Impressively, the South Tyrolean improved her time by a whopping six and a half seconds (3:33 minutes).

Austrian superstar Valentina Höll set the fastest time (3:28). American Anna Newkirk (3:29) and Briton Tahnee Seagreave (3:31) followed. Gloria Scarsi, another Azzurra, secured her ticket to the final. "I'm very, very happy," said the 32-year-old Widmann after qualifying. "I'll go full throttle tomorrow and try to achieve a good result."

Seiwald beaten

Greta Seiwald also competed in the women's short track race on Friday. The 28-year-old had to settle for 27th place. She lost 1:42 minutes to the winner, Puck Pieterse from the Netherlands. Second place went to Samara Maxwell of Australia (+16 seconds), and Nicole Koller of Switzerland completed the podium (+21).

At the end of her strength: Greta Seiwald © Noam Meresse

Elian Paccagnella also missed a top result in the U23 category. The South Tyrolean finished 1th, 36:24 minutes behind Swiss Finn Treudler. Thus, there's still room for improvement in cross-country for both Paccagnella and Seiwald.