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Elena Kostenko and Anton Mamaev win gold in Slopestyle

Snowboard 3 March 2019

The Snowboard programme at the 29th Winter Universiade ended with the Slopestyle competitions at the Sopka Cluster on a positive note for the home crowd, as Russians Elena Kostenko and Anton Mamaev won gold medals 

 KRASNOYARSK, 10 March – As the women’s qualifiers started, three Russian snowboarders took the lead after the first attempt: Anastasia Loginova, Elizaveta Bogdanova and Elena Kostenko. Loginova scored 78.50 points and was ahead of her competitors by a large margin. In the second attempt, the leaders did not improve their results much, but their opponents did not take advantage of this and six snowboarders reached the final part.

 

Four out of the six to make it to the final run were Russians and three of them swept the medals. Kostenko won the gold medal, scoring 76.75 in her second run. Later on, she said her natural game was the key to her success.

 

“I didn’t try anything hard today, I did my normal run,” she explained. “I didn’t fly high or anything, my coach told me before the run that don’t try to be hard on yourself, just do your normal run and you will definitely win and that’s what I did.”

 

Loginova won silver scoring 71.25 in both her final runs. Kosova took bronze scoring 68.75 in her first final run, which remained her best score as the second run score was only 42.75.

 

In the men’s competition, Anton Mamaev of Russia won the gold even though he scored just 26.25 in his first final run. At that point, Vladislav Khadarin was leading, having performed brilliantly to score 92.00 points.

 

It was the second attempt that decided everything. Khadarin was not able to improve his result, while Mamaev pulled himself together and showed excellent technique to receive 95.00 points. Khadarin won silver and Axel Thelen of Finland won the bronze medal. Thinlen scored 82.50 in first run and 89.25 in second.

 

After the finish, Mamaev said he realized the mistakes he made in first run and didn’t allow himself to repeat them.

 

“I kept reminding myself of the mistakes I made in first run,” he said. “And I was very careful in second run to not repeat that.” For the athlete from the home nation, the Sopka Cluster is already familiar but the course itself was challenging. “I was here last December, but the trail of that time and now is completely different, nobody could read it.”

 

“The Krasnoyarsk 2019 Winter Universiade feels like the Olympic Games,” he continued. “I thank all our fans who are very special in Krasnoyarsk. They support everyone and that’s really cool!”

 

RESULTS

Snowboard. Slopestyle. Women 
  1. Elena Kostenko (RUS) – 76.75 

  2. Anastasia Loginova (RUS) – 71.25

  3. Ekaterina Kosova (RUS) – 68.75

 

Snowboard. Slopestyle. Men
  1. Anton Mamaev (The Ekaterinburg Institute of Physical Education) – 95.00

  2. Vladislav Khadarin (RUS) – 92.00

  3. Axel Thelen (FIN) – 89.25

 

Earlier, 9 March

Opening her first run with a massive frontside 720, Kurumi Imai of Japan immediately made her presence known in the women’s Snowboard Halfpipe. The 19-year-old followed this up with a near flawless run punctuated by soaring hits that she carried out of the pipe.

 For Nikita Avtaneev in the men’s event, it all came down to the final run. With first run leader Leejun Kweon of South Korea coming back with an even higher scoring second run, the 24-year-old from Moscow saw opportunity. He responded with a frontside 1080 and a double-cork 1080. The style and the spins were in his second run, but was it good enough for gold? 

 

“Yeah, I knew,” Avtaneev said after the event. “I had in mind changing one of my elements for that last run, but when I saw Kweon complete that double cork, I knew I’d do it better. So I kept it in my run. And I did it better. That’s why I won.” 

 

Joining the Olympian Imai in the winner’s circle was Long Qui, who posted a second run of 83.5 for silver, and Qui’s Chinese countrywoman Shaotung Wu who earned bronze with her 70.50 first run score.

 

Alex Helen of Finland’s second run score of 81.5 earned him the bronze to complete men’s podium with Antaneev and Kweon.

 

The event was electric for all the competitors, but especially so when Avtaneev hit the halfpipe. “Oh, I really liked competing here,” Avtaneeve said. “The atmosphere was really entertaining here. The crowds kept shouting really funny things to me from the stands.” 

 For the first-year university student Imai, her experience in Siberia has her eyeing the Lucerne 2021 Winter Universiade and maybe even Lake Placid in 2023. “I wanted to come to this Universiade and win and I did. It’d be great to do that again.”

 

SNOWBOARD | RESULTS | Women’s Halfpipe Finals
RANK NAME COUNTRY BEST RUN SCORE
1 Imai Kurumi Japan 89.25
2 Leng Qui China 83.5
3 Shooting Wu China 70.50

  

SNOWBOARD | RESULTS | Men’s Halfpipe Finals
RANK NAME COUNTRY BEST RUN SCORE
1 Nikia Avtaneev Russia 89.25
2 Leejun Kweon South Korea 83.5
3 Axel Thelen Finland 81.5

 

Earlier, 6 March 

The Sopka Cluster continued to host snowboarders, this time competing for two sets of medals in Parallel Slalom. Both women’s and men’s gold medals went to Russians: Milena Bykova and Dmitry Karlagachev

KRASNOYARSK, 6 March – The The fastest qualification times in the women’s Snowboard parallel slalom were those of Natalia Soboleva of Russia and Sangho Lee of South Korea. The leaders became clear, yet the hardest thing was still to be done.

 

Natalia Soboleva, Elizaveta Salikhova, and Milena Bykova from Russia made it to the semi-finals. Another athlete from South Korea, Jeong Haerim, who won gold in parallel giant slalom the day before, also got to the semi-finals.

 

It was Soboleva who stopped the Korean on her way to a potential second gold medal, but Haerim did win the fight for bronze and ended up adding one more medal to ther tally at the Winter Universiade 2019.

 

It was time then, for the title duel and Milena Bykova finished a bit faster (0.03 sec) than Natalia Soboleva in the first run. In the second run, Milena added to her lead and finished first. Natalia Soboleva grabbed second place.

 

“It’s only the best and positive emotions,” Milena Bykova shared her joy after crossing the finish line. “Yesterday, I was eager to win but I wasn’t successful in everything. But today I’ve done my best and made the most of my skills. I’m thankful to supporters. I heard everybody shouting ‘Russia!’ right from the starting line. This is the first time I’ve had so many people cheering for me!”

 

The situation in men’s series was similar: Sangho Lee (South Korea), Dmitry Loginov (Russia), Dmitry Sarsembayev (Russia) and Dmitry Karlagachev (Russia) moved into the semi-finals. In the battle with Sangho Lee, Dmitry Karlagachev lost in the first heat, but in the second he took advantage of his opponent’s mistake and won a trip to the big final.  In the second semi-final, in the battle between Dmitry Loginov and Dmitry Sarsembayev, the latter emerged 0.3 seconds faster after both runs.

In men’s small final, Sangho Lee was faster than Dmitry Loginov and went up on the podium for a bronze medal.  

 

In the battle for gold, Dmitry Sarsembayev made a mistake in the first heat and lost speed in one of the turns, allowing Dmitry Karlagachev to break free. In the second, Sarsembayev almost played back the gap, but again made a mistake and eventually conceded victory to his compatriot. 

 

Even with a medal around his neck, Dmitry Karlagachev admitted that he hadn’t realized what had happened: “Still I can’t believe I have won! The track is perfect, it’s calm and rhythmic – just my style! Thanks a lot to the supporters who stood in the stands and sat in front of the TV screens – it charges and motivates me! I really liked it here: the village, the organization, the supporters – I’m impressed! But I have to leave – new rounds of the World Cup are coming soon.”

 

Snowboard. Parallel slalom. Women

  1. Milena Bykova (Volga Region State Academy of Physical Culture, Sport and Tourism)

  2. Natalya Soboleva (Siberian State University of Physical Education and Sport)

  3. Jeong Haerim (Korea National Sport University)

 

Snowboard. Parallel slalom. Men

  1. Dmitry Karlagachev (Siberian State University of Physical Education and Sport)

  2. Dmitry Sarsembayev (Siberian State University of Physical Education and Sport)

  3. Sangho Lee (Korea National Sport University)

 

 

DAY THREE- 5 March, 2019

 

Gold for Korea and Poland in Snowboard Parallel Giant Slalom

 

The Polish flag flew high during the men’s event, as two Poles changed the expected script to win gold and silver, stunning the favoured Russian and pushing him to bronze. An inspired Haerim Jeong from Korea won the women’s event.

KRASNOYARSK, 5 March – It was victory on the mountain for Haerim Jeong from Korea and Oskar Jerzy Kwiatowski from Poland, who took home the women’s and men’s titles respectively, in the parallel giant slalom at the Krasnoyarsk 2019 Winter Universiade.

 

Jeong, who has competed at three FIS Snowboard Championships, defeated Milena Bykova from Russia in the final run by 0.26. Natalie Soboleva from Russia took the bronze medal.

 

Jeong got to the final by winning her duels against Yuetong Shi from China, Darya Slobodka from Kazakhstan and Soboleva in the elimination rounds.

 

“My results are getting better and better every time,” Jeong said after receving her gold medal. “I have plans to take part in two more world cups and hope that my results will be the same or even get better.”

 

For Soboleva, it was an honour just to be able to compete in front of her home crowd. “I like participating here, in the Universiade in Russia where everything is at the top level,” she said. “I hope that the Europeans and people from other countries will be glad to participate here as well.”

 

In the men’s event, Oskar Kwiatowski defeated his Polish teammate Michel Jakub Nowazyk in the final run by just one hundredth of a second. Dmitriy Sarsembaev, the reigning world champion from Russia, took the bronze. Kwiatowski got to the final by defeating Daehwan Kim from Korea, Vladislav Shkurikhin from Russia and Sarsembaev in the elimination rounds. In the big final against his compatriot, Kwiatowski was trailing at first but halfway down, Novocek caught one gate and that one mistake was enough to push him to silver. The two Poles hugged each other at the end of the race.

“I am satisfied,” Kwiatowski said. “You’ve got good athletes from Russia. We pushed them a little bit. It was a really good fight.”

 

Kwiatowski also said he was ‘kindly surprised’ to compete against his fellow countryman Nowazyk in the final. “That was a nice experience. I was a little bit nervous because we competed in the training and I didn’t know who would be faster.”

 

It was a warm end to a warm day at the Sopka Cluster, where temperatures hovered around three to five degrees throughout the competition.

 

There were 18 competitors in total in the women’s race and 27 in the men’s, entering the morning qualifications. Both the men and women began with a qualification run before moving on to the elimination runs in the afternoon. The competitors then moved on to the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals in order to determine the winner. Snowboarders had two runs in each round. Snowboard competition at the Winter Universiade 2019 continues on 6 March, with the men’s and women’s parallel slalom.

 

Results:

Men

  1. Oskar Kwiatowski (POL)

  2. Michel Nowazyk (POL)

  3. Dmitriy Sarsembaev (RUS)

 

Women

  1. Haerim Jeong (KOR)

  2. Milena Bykova (RUS)

  3. Natalie Soboleva (RUS)

 

 

 

 

DAY ONE- 3 March, 2019

Home pride for Russia in women’s Snowboard Cross, Canada takes gold in men’s event

Kristina Paul (RUS) – Gold Medalist in Women’s Snowboard Cross KRASNOYARSK, 3 March – The first day of Snowboard competition at the Winter Universiade 2019 was a day for Russians and Canadians to shine, as the Snowboard Cross finals took place at the Sopka Cluster.

 

After winning his semi-final heat, Canada’s Will Malisch took that form into the final and won the gold medal in the men’s competition.

 

“I feel amazing,” he said after clinching gold. “It’s hard to describe really. This is my first big win in a long time so I’m really proud. Thanks to my teachers for letting me miss school!”

 

“It’s hard to put into words, it’s unbelievable,” he added. “I’m really happy”.

 

Russian Daniil Dilman finished second, with Japan’s Yoshiki Takahara in third. In fourth place was another Russian, Vasily Loktev-Zagorskiy who had won his semifinal and was looking good for a podium finish until things went awry for him towards the finishing stages of the final.

 

“I now hope for the Olympic Games, for sure,” said an elated Takahara after winning bronze, keen to build on his success. “I wasn’t nervous. But it’s so difficult, because the final part is so fast.”

 

Russian Kristina Paul took gold in the women’s final, storming to first place by controlling the inevitable pressure that comes at this level of competition. Paul progressed into the final displaying great confidence, having won her semi-final heat.

 

“Everyone feels nervous,” she admitted later. “I was just as nervous in the qualification, as I was in the final. But you cannot think about nerves when you start going down.”

 

Paul’s countrywoman Aleksandra Parshina won the silver medal, while Canada’s Audrey McManiman took bronze.

 

The next Snowboard competition day is March 5, with the Parallel Giant Slalom men’s and women’s finals.

 

With inputs from FISU Young Reporter Peter Lynch

 

Results: Snowboard Cross, Men’s Final
  1. Will Malisch (CAN)

  2. Daniil Dilman (RUS)

  3. Yoshiki Takahara (JPN)

 

Results: Snowboard Cross, Women’s Final
  1. Kristina Paul (RUS)

  2. Aleksandra Parshina (RUS)

  3. Audrey McManiman (CAN)