The German snowboarders leave the World Championships in Bakuriani without a medal. In the team competition, Loch/Huber and Hofmeister/Baumeister finished early.
The German snowboarders, who are otherwise used to success, experienced a disaster at the World Championships in Georgia. There was also no medal in the mixed team competition, which premiered in Bakuriani. After the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, the World Cup is the next major event to end without a podium finish.
Competition too strong, Hofmeister angry
Cheyenne Loch and Elias Huber failed in the round of 16 against the Italian team. Stefan Baumeister and Ramona Hofmeister had to bury their medal dreams in the quarter-finals – they were eliminated by the Swiss team. Like the rest of the World Cup, Baumeister had problems with the difficult conditions. Strong winds prevailed again. After a ride, he did not finish the run against Dario Caviezel.
Hofmeister had to start her race 1.5 seconds behind. She drove aggressively, but as in the parallel slalom again not without mistakes. The three-time overall World Cup winner had to admit defeat to world champion Julie Zogg. The Swiss then won the bronze medal.
It reigns”anger before. It wasn’t a fair race today either. There were no World Cup conditions. It was such a storm, you hardly saw anything‘ Hofmeister scolded.
Team Germany cannot live up to expectations
“The disappointment is very, very big, because we came here with completely different expectations,” said sports director Andi Scheid.
Even in the individual competitions, the German snowboarders were unable to meet the high expectations due to the sometimes chaotic conditions. In the parallel slalom, Hofmeister had to settle for the thankless fourth place. The men were already stuck in the qualification. In the parallel giant slalom there was even a debacle for Hofmeister and Co.: None of the eight Germans got past the first knockout round.
Italy II premiere world champion
A team from Italy surprisingly secured the title in the first team mixed competition in World Cup history. Nadya Ochner and Aaron March defeated world champion Andreas Promegger and bronze medalist Sabine Schöffmann. For the two Italians it is the first World Cup medal of their career.