Vice World Champion Florian Wilmsmann (Hartpenning) missed out on the first win of the season for the German ski crossers in the last race.
One day after second place, the 27-year-old was only fourth at the World Cup finals in Craigleith, Canada, north of Toronto, after a collision with Frenchman Youri Duplessis Kergomard, who ended up second in the grand final. Victory went to Canadian Brady Leman.
Canadian Reece Howden, who was successful in front of Wilmsmann on Friday, secured the overall World Cup ahead of schedule. On Saturday, he was eliminated in the quarter-finals. Wilmsmann took third place in this ranking behind Sweden’s David Mobärg.
In the second men’s semi-final, three Germans fought for a place in the grand final, but only Wilmsmann, who was victorious ahead of Joos Berry from Switzerland, was able to do so. For the German ski crossers there were a total of eight podium finishes this World Cup winter.
The good performance of the German starters was completed by Tobias Müller (Fischen) and Niklas Bachsleitner (Partenkirchen), who, after their knockout in the semifinals, took first and second place in the small final and thus finished fifth and sixth. Tim Hronek (Unterwössen) had failed in the quarterfinals.
In the women’s race, in the absence of the still injured serial winner and overall World Cup winner Sandra Näslund (Sweden), the French Marielle Berger Sabbatel, who celebrated her first win of the season, won.
Fanny Smith (Switzerland), former world champion and Olympic third-place winner the day before, fell in the grand final. Johanna Holzmann (Oberstdorf) was eliminated in the semi-finals and finished eighth in the final standings.
