A Swiss Day in Yabuli

For the first time ever in China an international downhill competition took place today and it went to Swiss skiers. Indeed, the Yabuli ski resort was the place to be for this “first” and the organisers made this competition a huge success. They had to work for months with technicians from the FIS to gain some experience and homologation. The race had to be delayed because of the cloudy and windy conditions of this morning but the women’s downhill could start at 1.15 pm
With bib n°1 Tamara Wolf born in 1985 and coming from Celerina(a small village close to Saint Moritz) made the perfect run. “It was really a good race for me and I was so happy to win today after three years without competing because of injuries on my legs. Bib n°1 was a problem for me at the beginning because I had no idea how to manage my race. But I did my best and it worked.” Mirena Kueng, also from Switzerland managed to finish second (Chika Kato from Japan took the bronze medal).

Her teammate Sandro Boner born in 1988 and coming from Serneus (close to Davos) was one of the favourite for the men’s downhill. “Even if it’s not my speciality, I had excellent sensations after yesterday’s training; I run so fast so I knew I could do it today. This is my first Universiade and I’m particularly proud to win this gold medal for all my friends who came here to compete in other disciplines”.
Michael Sablatnik from Austria finished second and Christoph Boner from Switzerland was third. This was an excellent result for the Swiss team as they managed also to win a bronze medal during the ski cross competition.

Indeed, ski cross is a part of the Freestyle skiing event and is an optional sport for the first time ever at a Winter Universiade. This very spectacular discipline took place today in Yabuli and saw the victory of the French skier Antoine Galland. Antoine had to fight till the end against Andreas Tischendorf from Germany. He was particularly happy after his winning run. Getting the gold medal at the Universiade was his main goal after a long period without winning any race. The Women’s event went to the Austrian skier Katrin Ofner. She won the event after a big fight against Nicoletta Carlotta who signed the second medal for the French Team.

Also today in cross country we saw an incredible Russian domination in both men and women events. Indeed the Russian team registered very strong skiers. The Russians took the five first places in the women’s 5 km free event and the four first places at the men’s 10 km free! The sprint event of tomorrow will be very interesting and we will see how the other nations will manage to face this domination.

Finally, Nordic combined event went to Steffen Tepel from Germany, Hatakeyama Chota from Japan finished second and Austrian Benjamin Kreiner finished at the third place.
Steffen was very happy after his fifth place gained at the K90 this morning because ski jump is not his speciality. During the cross country part he had no problem to join the lead but he had to be strong till the end. Indeed, Hatakeyama Choto managed to stay very close to him till the very last meters.

Today’s results in PDF format

Alpine Skiing- Downhill- Men

Alpine Skiing- Downhill- Women

Freestyle Skiing- Skicross- Men

Freestyle Skiing- Skicross- Women

Cross Country Skiing- 10km free- Men

Cross Country Skiing- 5km free- Women

Nordic combined- K90-10km free

Antoine Galland (left) and Katrin Ofner, both skicross winners

From left to right: Cristoph Boner, Sandro Boner and Manuel Eicher, today’s Swiss medallists in the men’s events