Snowboarding, March wins in the parallel slalom at the World Cup. Caffon third

Four years of waiting is a long time, especially for a 38-year-old athlete. Never give up, Aaron March must have thought during this long abstinence, as he triumphed in Bad Gastein in the snowboarding World Cup on the evening when another Italian, Elisa Caffont, was third. It is therefore still great Italy in the parallel: the Austrian slalom rewards for the third consecutive year an Italian specialist from the team directed by Cesare Pisoni: after the two pearls of Maurizio Bormolini in 2023 and 2024, today March triumphs in the third slalom of the season. This is the fourth career success – again in slalom – for the 38-year-old South Tyrolean from Fiè allo Scillar, winning in the final over the home champion Andreas Prommegger, after having beaten Dario Caviezel, Radoslav Yankov and Cody Winters in the round of 16 and semi-finals, then third in the challenge with Alexander Payer for third place. However, the match of the other three Italians qualified for the main draw was stopped in the round of 16: Maurizio Bormolini stopped by Canadian Ben Heldman, Gabriel Messner with Gian Casanova and Daniele Bagozza against Yankov himself. For March it is the second podium of the season after the second place obtained in Cortina d’Ampezzo, while for the Italian alpine snowboarder it is the eighth victory of this season with glorious contours.

Happiness’

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“It’s great – says March – I particularly love this track, this place. I gave everything I could, it was a great race and I’m happy with how I reached this event, after some problems in giant slalom in the last few outings”. First podium of the season instead for Elisa Caffont, who therefore in turn contributes to the spoils that count so far 15 appearances in the top 3. Caffont from Belluno achieved third place by overcoming the Swiss Flurina Batschi in the small final, after having surrendered in the semi-final against the German Ramona Hofmeister, winning in the decisive act on the Japanese Tsubaki Miki. To reach the semi-final, Caffont – the second podium of her career – first passed the round of 16 with the Czech Zuzana Maderova and then the Austrian expert Claudia Riegler who had beaten Lucia Dalmasso in the first round, with Jasmin Coratti in turn out in the round of 16 at the hands of Sabine Payer. Tomorrow, Wednesday, the Bad Gastein stage will be completed with the first team test of the season, the start at 4pm.