After the dream season last year, Ramona Hofmeister is slowly getting going. In the third race of the season in Yanqing, China, the German snowboarder finished in fifth place, showing an upward trend.
“HeyIt was really a lot of fun. I came in much better and thought that something was going well. I already joked with Tsubaki Miki, who was first after qualifying, that we would meet in the final.”said the 28-year-old after the race.
Hofmeister: “Feeling better than last week”
It wasn’t enough to make it to the final, Hofmeister was eliminated in the quarter-finals against Gloria Kotnik (Slovenia), but was not dissatisfied with fifth place: “The feeling today was much better than last week, but of course I want more.” Last winter she won the small ball in the parallel slalom for the first time, in the parallel giant slalom for the fifth time and crowned her outstanding season with World Cup victories numbers 16 to 20 with her fourth triumph in the overall World Cup.
The road back to the throne is rocky, in China the Hofmeister was back at his usual speed. The form curve is going in the right direction – also for the other German starters. Cheyenne Loch was fast in qualifying, but then botched her round of 16 and came ninth, Melanie Hochreiter took 14th place. The Italian Lucia Dalmasso secured victory in China ahead of Sabine Payer from Austria.
Baumeister fights back
Stefan Baumeister from Germany in action.
In the men’s category, two-time World Cup bronze medalist Stefan Baumeister made it to the round of 16 and ended up in 14th place. For the 31-year-old, this was his best result in the parallel giant slalom in a year and a half. Elias Huber, Yannik Angenend and Ole-Mikkel Prantl were all eliminated in qualifying. Tim Mastnak from Slovenia took the win. The parallel slaloms continue in Yanqing on Sunday (6.30 a.m.).