Ski Cross: Schimd, Holmlund win final World Cup; David seals title

By Published On: March 19th, 2010Comments Off on Ski Cross: Schimd, Holmlund win final World Cup; David seals title

Like she’s done the past six consecutive years, French ski cross racer Ophelie David clenched the overall title today (March 19) with a second-place result at the season’s final race in Sierra Nevada, Spain. Though it was his weeks ago, Switzerland’s Michael Schmid was awarded the men’s overall globe today following his season-closing victory. Sweden’s Anna Holmlund took today’s victory in the women’s race as well as a third-place overall ranking.

Today’s races, originally scheduled for tomorrow, were pushed up a day due to poor weather forecasts.

The real story of the day was in the women’s overall standings. Since winning an Olympic gold medal at the sport’s debut at the Vancouver Games, Canadian Ashleigh McIvor has been threatening to dethrone David and take the overall title – something no one has been able to do since 2003. McIvor was 73 points behind David coming into today’s race, meaning a win by McIvor and anything less than a ninth-place finish for David would have put the globe in the 26-year-old Canadian’s hands.

Though she had a bad day at the Olympics (fell during her quarterfinal heat) David, the reigning four-time X Games gold medalist, had her eyes on the prize as soon as she landed in Spain. The 33-year-old mother of one put down the fastest qualifying time and won each of her heats until falling behind Holmlund in the final. Today’s second-place result scored David her final 80 points bringing her season total to 735.

After qualifying third, McIvor fell in her quarterfinal heat, landing in 10th today and falling 127 points behind David to end the season in the runner-up spot with 608 points.  Her previous best overall result was fifth last season.

Holmlund amassed 522 points this season to claim third place overall. The 23-year-old has been a quick study in this her first year on the ski cross World Cup circuit. She grabbed four wins this season, including victories in the last two races.

Norway’s Marte Hoeie Gjefsen, another World Cup rookie, pulled in today’s third place honors for third career podium.

Canadian, Kelsy Serwa (ninth today) finished the season in fourth overall with 487 points and three victories.

Olympic gold medalist Schmid owned the men’s event today. He secured the fastest qualifying time then went on to win all but his quarterfinal heat. Second place today went to Olympic bronze medalist Audun Groenvold while Switzerland’s Andreas Steffen repeated his third-place performance on the same hill in 2008.

This season’s X Games gold medalist, Canadian Christopher Del Bosco was last to cross the finish line in the final for a fourth-place finish. Teammate Stanley Hayer, who had been on the Sierra Nevada podium each of the three previous World Cup stops on the hill, wasn’t able to keep up with Del Bosco and Groenvold in a semfinal heat and finished fifth after winning the small final.

Schmid was in control of the standings all season long with five World Cup wins and never finishing lower than fifth through 11 races this season. This is his first overall title, his previous best overall result came in 2007 with a fourth-place ranking.

Del Bosco had the second most overall points with 547, ahead of Groenvold with 530.

Though he retired from World Cup ski cross racing following the Vancouver Games, American Daron Rahlves ended the season in 15th overall to lead the US. Teammate Casey Puckett, who also called it quits last month, finished 18th overall. No Americans raced in either of today’s races.

The Canadian team, which put racers on the podium at almost every race this season (20), was named the top ski cross nation in the world for the third consecutive year, though this is the first year an award was presented.
 
“Today was a bit bittersweet, we didn’t have any athletes on the podium today but it was good for the whole team to get the opportunity to take the stage when we were awarded the top nation in the world,” said Canadian head  coach Eric Archer.
 
For a full list of this season’s rankings click here.
 
Click the attachments below to see the race brackets.

Look for a World Cup Ski Cross season wrap up in the next digital issue of Ski Racing.

Women’s Results

 1    2527563 HOLMLUND Anna  1987  SWE       1000.00
 2    2394866 DAVID Ophelie  1976  FRA       800.00
 3    2527513 HOEIE GJEFSEN Marte  1989  NOR       600.00
 4    2484546 MANHARD Julia  1987  GER       500.00
 5    2527486 LUEDI Sanna  1986  SUI       450.00
 6    2452775 FUKUSHIMA Noriko  1979  JPN       400.00
 7    2527349 UMEHARA Reina  1983  JPN       360.00
 8    2526373 SMITH Fanny  1992  SUI       320.00
 9    2527273 SERWA Kelsey  1989  CAN       290.00
 10    2484439 MCIVOR Ashleigh  1983  CAN       260.00
 11    2526363 MUELLER Katrin  1989  SUI       240.00
 12    2527287 POLESCHUK Danielle  1986  CAN       220.00
 13    2526237 JOSSERAND Marion  1986  FRA       200.00
 14    2526236 GEORGES Chloe  1980  FRA       180.00
 15    2526015 OFNER Katrin  1990  AUT       160.00
 16    2526328 KENNEDY Sami  1988  AUS       150.00
 17    2448604 MURK Seraina  1971  SUI       140.00
 18    2484547 REISINGER Sarah  1989  GER       130.00
 19    2485279 DELGADO Rocio  1977  SPA       0.00
 20    2526475 ZARAGOZA Cynthia  1991  SPA       0.00
Did not start
     2387882 CLINE Aleisha  1970  CAN       
     2526014 MANHARD Christina  1990  GER       
Did not finish
     2526527 JENSEN Julie Brendengen  1990  NOR       

Men’s Results

 1  1  2455006 SCHMID Michael  1984  SUI       1000.00
 2  3  2484376 GROENVOLD Audun  1976  NOR       800.00
 3  9  2392635 STEFFEN Andreas  1975  SUI       600.00
 4  2  2526820 DELBOSCO Christopher  1982  CAN       500.00
 5  5  2526725 HAYER Stanley  1973  CAN       450.00
 6  11  2447828 BARR Davey  1977  CAN       400.00
 7  26  2384390 WITTNER Markus  1973  AUT       360.00
 8  13  2484604 KOLLER Patrick  1983  AUT       320.00
 9  4  2387009 LEWEN Lars  1975  SWE       290.00
 10  12  2484520 BENNETT Brian  1980  CAN       260.00
 11  14  2384681 WALDNER Klaus  1980  AUT       240.00
 12  15  2412132 HAUKKALA Juha  1978  FIN       220.00
 13  16  2526789 STICKL Simon  1987  GER       200.00
 14  18  2527296 BOHNACKER Daniel  1990  GER       180.00
 15  19  2527361 PELLINEN Jouni  1983  FIN       160.00
 16  25  2450835 MIAILLIER Sylvain  1986  FRA       150.00
 17  6  2451417 MATT Andreas  1982  AUT       140.00
 18  7  2400395 ELIASSON Tommy  1980  SWE       130.00
 19  8  2484562 PICCARD Ted  1978  FRA       120.00
 20  10  2526291 NIEDERER Armin  1987  SUI       110.00
 21  17  2411938 ZANGERL Thomas  1983  AUT       100.00
 22  20  2526955 FIVA Alex  1986  SUI       90.00
 23  21  2526239 FABRE Olivier  1983  FRA       80.00
 24  22  2448410 NETZER Conradign  1980  SUI       70.00
 25  23  2527284 ZORICIC Nick  1983  CAN       60.00
 26  24  2412714 SAFAR Zdenek  1978  CZE       50.00
 27  27  2527624 GASSER Patrick  1985  SUI       45.00
 28  28  2526137 FORSLUND Michael  1986  SWE       40.00
 29  29  2412229 KARHUMAKI Tuomas  1981  FIN       36.00
 30  30  2526349 STAEHLI Peter  1989  SUI       0.00
 31  31  2484379 GASSER Philip  1983  SUI       0.00
 32  32  2386524 KRAUS Tomas  1974  CZE       0.00
Did not start
     2526844 RUOPPA Samu  1989  FIN     
SXwomensbracketMarch19.pdf 196 KB
SXMenbracketMarch19.pdf 198.2 KB

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About the Author: Eric Williams