Fischnaller snatches Crystal Globe in dramatic fashion

Roland Fischnaller snatched his third parallel giant slalom Crystal Globe in dramatic fashion at the final event of the season in Rogla. The Italian was trailing both Oskar Kwiatkowski of Poland and Austria's Andreas Prommegger in the discipline standings, needing to make up 90 points to take the title.

Ad But with Kwiatkowski finishing outside the top 40 in qualification, Fischnaller suddenly had an outside chance to leapfrog both into first — only a win would do. SnowboardBritain's Bankes makes it back-to-back wins to take overall World Cup lead12/03/2023 AT 14:46 The 42-year-old also needed Andreas Prommegger to slip up, and the parallel slalom world champion suffered a shock exit in the last 16 to home favourite Zan Kosir.

That would be sufficient to put the Austrian above Kwiatkowski in the parallel giant slalom standings, but not enough to rule out Fischnaller who comfortably made it past Tim Mastnak of Slovenia in the quarter final. Fischnaller confirmed his fourth podium of the season when compatriot Edwin Coratti crashed out in the semis, and Mirko Felicetti trailed his fellow Italian by 0.32 in the final.

Coratti's tight small final victory by two hundredths of a second over Sangho Lee made it an Italian 1-2-3 on the podium, atop which a disbelieving Fischnaller stood clutching his seventh crystal globe. In the women's event, Austria's Sabine Schoeffmann claimed her first parallel giant slalom victory of the season but couldn't stop Ramona Theresia Hofmeister picking up the title.