Katharina Liensberger was speaking to reporters within the blended zone when she realized that her silver medal within the parallel big slalom occasion had been upgraded to a tie for gold on the world championships.
The Austrian fell to the snow in celebration.
“I simply can’t imagine it, nevertheless it’s true,” Liensberger stated. “I used to be somewhat bit confused within the end.”
She wasn’t the one one.
Ski racing’s quick-fire parallel occasion has seen so many rule modifications over time that many followers hardly perceive it anymore. On Tuesday, even athletes and organizers on the world championships had been so confused by the laws that it took some time to type out the medals.
The ladies’s two-run closing between Marta Bassino and Liensberger led to a tie, and organizers initially declared the Italian the winner as she got here from behind within the second leg.
Nevertheless, that was an outdated rule which is not legitimate anymore. So the outcomes had been shortly modified to having two co-champions.
“Simply 0.00 [on the clock], after which no person knew what was occurring,” Liensberger stated.
Dedicates victory to injured teammate Goggia
Sharing the win with Liensberger, Bassino earned host nation Italy its first medal after seven occasions.
“Lastly. We do not have the gang however now I’ve a medal so I can assume [about] the GS with out strain,” stated Bassino, who’s a favorite in Thursday’s big slalom after successful 4 World Cup races within the self-discipline this season.
Earlier Tuesday, Bassino solely simply made the reduce after qualifying additionally led to confusion. Official outcome sheets didn’t specify which 16 racers truly superior to the knockout part.
Ranked seventeenth, the Italian appeared out of the race till it turned clear that it wasn’t the 16 quickest skiers general who superior, however however the high eight from every course.
That rule saved the Italian, who was eighth-fastest on the purple course.
Bassino stated she felt “sorry” to have eradicated her teammate Brignone within the quarter-finals.
“However that is our sport. We’ve to battle one in opposition to one different,” she stated.
Profession greatest outcome for Moltzan
There was no confusion over the outcome within the males’s closing, the place Mathieu Faivre received each runs in opposition to Croatian skier Filip Zubcic to earn France its first gold of the worlds.
Bronze within the ladies’s occasion went to France’s Tessa Worley, who defeated Paula Moltzan of america.
“My greatest at world champs earlier than this was [18th], so fourth is unimaginable,” stated Moltzan, who completed runner-up in the one World Cup parallel occasion this season in November.
Why is Moltzan doing so effectively at parallel races?
“I like the beginning gates,” she stated. “As athletes we’re all super-competitive so I feel that is an attention-grabbing solution to carry it out of everyone and I had loads of enjoyable. I identical to it.”
Loic Meillard received bronze for Switzerland within the males’s race after beating Alexander Schmid of Germany within the small closing. River Radamus reached the quarter-finals, the place he misplaced to Zubcic.
‘It was essentially the most unfair and absurd race’
The confusion over ending occasions was not the one situation affecting the occasion.
And the programs weren’t straight, both.
“It was essentially the most unfair and absurd race,” stated Federica Brignone, who misplaced an all-Italian quarter-final in opposition to Bassino.
“I’ve by no means seen such an unfair race. Parallel races need to be straight. You possibly can’t have the course turning like that,” she added. “Whoever began on the blue course within the first run had already virtually received. I am actually offended and I do not know if I am going to recover from it.”
Bassino acknowledged “there’s all the time some controversy in parallel. However not less than right this moment everybody bought to run on each programs.”
