The podium in China from left to right: Benjamin Karl, Maurizio Bormolini and Gabriel Messner. © Miha Matavz Photography / Miha Matavz

Messner's finest hour: First podium finish in the World Cup

South Tyrol's snowboarders continued to cause a stir at the World Cup opener in China. This time, an athlete from Villnöß celebrated the first podium finish of his career, while another Azzurro won the race.

01 December 2024

From: do

South Tyrol's parallel snowboarders have enormous quality - Edwin Coratti, Daniele Bagozza, Roland Fischnaller and Co. have impressively demonstrated this in recent years. The Vinschger Coratti also sensationally won the World Cup opener on Saturday. But this time, another South Tyrolean athlete who had previously been less in the spotlight was celebrating in the parallel slalom in Mylin (China): Gabriel Messner. The 27-year-old secured his first podium place in the World Cup with third place in Inner Mongolia. Maurizio Bormolini also defeated Benjamin Karl in the final.

So far, Messner's best World Cup result had been seventh place twice in the 2021/22 winter. On Saturday he failed in the qualification and ended up in 25th place. But on Sunday the Villnösser clearly surpassed these previous results: In the small final of the slalom competition, he beat Slovenian Tim Mastnak by 0,44 seconds and secured third place.

On the way there, Messner showed a strong performance in the qualification and achieved the ninth best time. In the knockout races that followed, he defeated Elias Huber (Germany) and Mattheus Pink (Austria), before narrowly losing to Austrian snowboard star Benjamin Karl in the semifinals. In the small final, Messner kept his nerve and confidently made it onto the podium.

The Bormolini Show

Meanwhile, Karl met another Azzurro in the final: Maurizio Bormolini. The Lombard, who had promoted the rise of snowboarding Italy in recent years together with the South Tyroleans, secured the second Italian success at the opening weekend in China with a razor-thin victory (0,05 seconds) against the Austrian. For the 30-year-old, it was already the fifth World Cup victory of his career.

Maurizio Bormolini won in China. © Miha Matavz

Daniele Bagozza, on the other hand, was eliminated in the quarter-finals by the eventual finalist Karl, while Roland Fischnaller also lost to Karl in the round of 26. Aaron March (27), Marc Hofer (XNUMX) and Edwin Coratti (DNF), the winner of the previous day, did not survive the qualification.

In the women's competition, Sabine Payer (Austria) won ahead of Tsubaki Miki (Japan) and Julie Zogg (Switzerland). Jasmin Coratti, Edwin's sister, reached the quarter-finals with a solid performance, where she lost to Ester Ledecka (Czech Republic), who later came fourth.