hckošice

Marián Hossa showing once again how hockey is insanely easy and beautiful Also today ended the regular season of our national championship. thus we know all play-offs pairs Quarterfinals Banská Bystrica (1st in Regular Season) vs Nové Zámky (8th regular season) Nitra (2) vs Poprad (7) HC Košice (3) vs Martin (6) Žilina (4) vs Zvolen (5) the series will be played as always in a best of 7 series from 16th March to 29th March Also we know that 9th and 10th teams of our regular season Dukla Trenčín and Liptovský Mikuláš will have to play the play-out with 1st and 2nd team of our 2nd League Detva and Skalica for the 2 last places in our national extraliga next season

3rd seasons win for Peter Sagan. 5th Stage of Tirreno-Adriatico last 3kms

Well, the thing is that all 5 selected athletes must have achieved criterias to start in the trimester in which the Olympic Games will be held, but this shouldn´t be a problem, for example many countries just send the athlete to the IBU cup, where it´s much easier to fulfill the required criterias. Yes, each country with at least 2 mens and 2 womens qualified athletes is automatically qualified for the mixed relay too. Still not sure about, but apparently all unused quotas will not be realocated.

FIS SNOWBOARDING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Men's Snowboard Cross Final Results VAULTIER Pierre -Big Final EGUIBAR Lucas -Big Final PULLIN Alex -Big Final ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Women's Snowboard Cross Final Results JACOBELLIS Lindsey -Big Final TRESPEUCH Chloe -Big Final MOIOLI Michela -Big Final Jacobellis and Vaultier crowned SBX World Champions It was another warm and sunny day here in Spain where the 4th snowboard day of the Sierra Nevada 2017 Freestyle Ski and Snowboard World Championships brought the first real racing action to the main stage. The best 24 ladies and 48 men from Friday's qualifiers were set to go for Gold, Silver and Bronze in a snowboard cross event which left nothing to be desired on the purpose built and 1,117 metres long track. After almost two hours of battling with their rivals and the soft snow conditions Lindsey Jacobellis (USA) and Pierre Vaultier (FRA) finally stood atop of the podium being crowned the 2017 SBX World Champions. Two big names of the scene ready to reign for the next two years but also two riders with a totally different background to the FIS major event. While Jacobellis is no stranger to the world championships podium, Pierre Vaultier finally snatched his career's first top-3 result at the worlds. In a heartbeat women's final, Jacobellis crossed the finish line first beating Olympic Bronze medallist Chloe Trespeuch (FRA) and Michela Moioli (ITA) who repeated her Bronze medal win of 2015 in a photo finish decision to walk away with her career's fifth Gold. The 31-year-old from Stratton, VT has won every SBX world championships race she has been competing in: “I mean, I don't plan it. It was really hard to see how things were going to go down today. I knew if I just got the best start, then I knew I had a shot. But as we know my starts aren't always the best. So, I just tried to give it everything I could and not really be distracted by other riders who were coming to peripheral vision. As soon as you get distracted you miss the transition. Everything was so quick, you had to be super precise.” Being only one title away from the most decorated rider at world championships as Karine Ruby (FRA) had claimed six titles in her career Jacobellis, who has now successfully defended a WCS title for the second time, expressed the importance of her fifth win: “Just as the women's level continues to increase this title is by far the hardest, and it was the most rewarding.” Over in the men's event, reigning Olympic champion Vaultier finally got what he was working for for quite a long time. Having underlined his claim on the title last Friday by posting the best time in the qualifiers the father of one kept the momentum of the time trials and rode as strong as one was expecting him to do so. However, he still faced some fierce competition in the final heat of the men with Lucas Eguibar (ESP) and Alex Pullin (AUS) giving him a hard time and no rest on the way down to the crowd which was going insane hoping for a home soil win of the local favourite. But in the end, it was Vaultier who got the hole shot and kept the lead from the start until the bottom of the course edging off the Spanish top gun and the two-time world champion from down under to the respective second and third rank. “I can't say much. I'm exhausted. I felt so much pressure, but I was capable to handle it. There is not a tiny bit of energy left in my body right now. It's overwhelming. I want to cry but I won't. I have been waiting for this so long, I gonna need a couple of days to realise what just happened,” Vaultier said right before the flower ceremony whilst also adding that “tomorrow is another race, but I don't know yet if I can race in the condition I'm right now.” The 12th FIS Snowboard World Championships in Sierra Nevada, Spain continue tomorrow with the first ever snowboard cross team event starting at 12 PM CET. Click here for an update on the TV times. Full Finals Results Men and Women Lindsey Jacobellis 2017 Snowboard Cross Womens World Champion and Pierre Vaultier 2017 Snowboard Cross Mens World Champion

Another IIHF World Championship to start tomorrow, Now it´s time for the men´s Under 18 category to battle for medals and hockey glory in different world championships tournaments during the upcomming days and weeks. The first one tournament to be contested will be the Mens U18 Division II Group B World Championships in Belgrade Serbia. Originally the tournament was scheduled in the SPENS Arena in Novi Sad, but for some reason the whole tournament has been moved to the Serbian capital Belgrade and will be played in the local Pionir Ice Rink. 6 Nations and host will battle for the gold medals and the only available ticket for next years Mens Under 18 division II Group A World Championships. And to avoid the last place resulting in the relegation to the mens Under 18 Division III Group A World Championships next year. Mens Under 18 Division II Group B World Championships 2017 in Belgrade (SRB) Day 1 Schedule (13th March 2017) GMT +1 13:00 Australia vs Iceland 16:30 Spain vs Belgium 20:30 Serbia vs Netherlands Livestream *Tournament format - 6 Teams will play a usual simple Round Robin Tournament. The 1st Nation will qualify for the next years mens Under 18 Division II Group A World Championships, The 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Nation will remains in this Division II Group B also for the next year, the 6th ranked Nation will be relegated to the Mens Under 18 Division III Group A world Championships next year.

Biathlon Qualification Standing after Event 21/22 Mens 1 Germany 7074.0 2 France 7005.0 3 Russia 6799.0 4 Norway 6762.0 5 Austria 6523.0 6 Ukraine 5951.0 7 Czech Republic 5846.0 8 Italy 5231.0 9 Switzerland 5071.0 10 USA 5062.0 11 Bulgaria 4808.0 12 Sweden 4600.0 13 Canada 4463.0 14 Belarus 4178.0 15 Kazakstan 4145.0 16 Slovakia 3983.0 17 Slovenia 3747.0 18 Romania 3218.0 18 Estonia 3218.0 20 Finland 3058.0 21 Latvia 2972.0 22 Lithuania 2889.0 23 Poland 2596.0 24 Japan 2443.0 25 South Korea 1620.0 26 Belgium 1179.0 27 Croatia 467.0 28 United Kingdom 416.0 29 Serbia 151.0 30 Greece 146.0 31 Hungary 70.0 32 Australia 47.0

Biathlon Qualification Standing after Event 21/22 Womens 1 Germany 7603.0 2 France 7220.0 3 Ukraine 6291.0 4 Czech Republic 6155.0 5 Italy 6096.0 6 Norway 5882.0 7 Russia 5797.0 8 Sweden 5717.0 9 Belarus 5381.0 10 Kazakstan 4947.0 11 Switzerland 4794.0 12 Poland 4790.0 13 Austria 4633.0 14 USA 4439.0 15 Canada 4387.0 16 Finland 4257.0 17 Slovakia 4200.0 18 Japan 3439.0 19 Bulgaria 3014.0 20 South Korea 2850.0 21 Slovenia 2741.0 22 Estonia 2567.0 23 Lithuania 2547.0 24 Romania 1935.0 25 China 1439.0 26 Latvia 1131.0 27 United Kingdom 642.0 28 Spain 400.0 29 Hungary 282.0 30 Bosnia and Herzegovina 144.0 31 Moldova 104.0 32 Greece 64.0

Stefan Kraft wins on the Holmenkollen "My best jump ever" "Everything worked out great for my today, I had two perfect jumps and good conditions in both rounds, that's why I could win. If it goes that well you have a lot of energy, so I'm already looking forward to jumping in Lillehammer tomorrow. It's cool to be the leader in the RAW AIR. Normally I would take a day off tomorrow, but that's not possible. The RAW AIR is a new challenge for all of us", the winner explained after the competition. Wellinger 20.5 points behind Kraft With the longest jump of the day of 133.5 m, Wellinger was in the lead after the first half of the competition. The German then jumped on 127 m in the final and could not keep up with Kraft: "Stefan just said that he made his best jump in the final, so it would have been hard to beat him anyway, but I also had a mistake in my second jump, it was not as good as my first one. It was a great competition, Stefan is in a great shape and so it will be hard to beat him. But in Ski Jumping it can go really fast in both directions. I'm sure that the RAW AIR will be exciting until the very last jump", said Andreas Wellinger, who is 20.5 points behind Kraft in the RAW AIR overall ranking after 5 of 16 jumps. Wellinger's teammate Markus Eisenbichler achieved the second podium result of his career in the World Cup. Eisenbichler jumped on 128.5 m and 125.5 m and scored 244.1 points. "It was a very, very good day for our team with two athletes on the podium. I was hoping that Andi can show a normal second jump, not such a bad one. But if it's still enough for him to finish second you can't complain. The RAW AIR is different than the 4-Hills-Tournament, because the qualifications and the team events also count. This makes it really exhausting and it can't be compared to the 4-Hills. I think it's really cool, but I'm focusing on my jumps and not on the overall ranking", said Eisenbichler. Daiki Ito came in fourth and could finally achieve a top result for the team of Japan, after it has been a difficult 2016/17 winter season for Ito, Kasai and the others. Behind Ito, the places 5, 6, 7 and 10 went to the team of Norway. Andreas Stjernen, Robert Johansson, Daniel Andre Tande and Johann Forfang are getting better and better on their home turf and haven't lost sight of the RAW AIR overall ranking. With 11 competition jumps to go there's still a lot possible. Best Norwegian is currently Andreas Stjernen in sixth, about 60 points behind Stefan Kraft. But considering the 5 rounds on the Ski Flying hill in Vikersund at the end of the RAW AIR series, it's seems to be a lot more than it actually is. Also Piotr Zyla of Poland and Slovenia's Peter Prevc still have a good chance to finish on the overall podium. Piotr Zyla, ninth today on the Holmenkollen, is fourth, only 2.9 points behind third-placed Markus Eisenbichler. Peter Prevc, who was second in the RAW AIR after Saturday's team event, lost some ground with a 16th place today, but in fifth he currently is less than ten points behind Eisenbichler. It's not going that well right now for Zyla's teammate Kamil Stoch. The Pole finished on a disappointing 16th place on Sunday and not only lost his chances to achieve a top result in the RAW AIR, but also the lead in the overall World Cup. In the fight for the big crystal bowl Stoch is now 31 points behind Stefan Kraft. The RAW AIR continues already tomorrow with the qualification in Lillehammer. The team will travel to Lillehammer on Monday morning, the official training and the qualification will be held in the afternoon. Full Results Here

haha yes I means on fire ofc yes very pleasant end of season from our girls

yep this was too nice to be true... but still very nice perf also from the younger sister

Paulína in fire. This was just epic leg from her

Bjoergen wins 6th Holmenkollen & Finn's go 2-3 After the starters gun sounded, Marit Bjoergen of Norway left little doubt as to who would win the ladies’ 2017 Holmenkollen 30 km classic mass start competition. Bjoergen was up by over 20 seconds by the 5 km mark of the competition and never looked back winning by +2:05.8 ahead of Finland’s Krista Parmakoski in second and in third another Finn Kerttu Niskanen +2:07 behind. It marks the first time that two female athletes from Finland have shared a World Cup podium since 2009. Parmakoski and Niskanen came to the finish with the main chasing group behind Bjoergen which also contained Overall World Cup leader Heidi Weng (NOR) in 4th, Charlotte Kalla (SWE) in 5th, Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) 6th and Aino-Kaisa Saarinen (FIN) in 7th. Full Results Here

Team South Korea in single mixed relay - Anna Frolina/Timofey Lapshin

Ito takes the final victory of the season Yuki Ito of Japan won the final of the FIS World Cup Ladies Ski Jumping on the big hill in Oslo. With the best 30 athletes of the season competing, Ito performed the longest jump of the day in the first round with 130,0 meters. 124,5 meters in the in round and 258,7 points gave her a comfortable lead over teammate Sara Takanashi who came in 2nd. Lundby third of the day and overall Third place went to local hero Maren Lundby of Norway. Yuki Ito also secured her second place in the World Cup overall ranking behind Sara Takanashi and ahead of Maren Lundby and said: “The first round was my worst jump in Oslo this year. But I knew I can do better. I am very happy to win in this historic place.” . Sara Takanashi delivered a great fight with Maren Lundby for the second place of the day. 127,0 and 126,0 meters and 251,0 points gave her a 0,2 point advantage over Lundby. Takanashi said: “The season started very good but there have been ups and downs. I was not able to improve my jumps the way I wanted to. The problem is my inrun position. I will have to work on this during the summer.” Lundby achieving her goals Lundby, still second after the first round, performed 129,0 and 124,5 meters. Lundby said: “I am very happy with the podium today. Also it was my goal to finish the season in the top three as the first Norwegian lady.” Behind the top three there was a large gap of more than 13 points. Fourth place went to Germany´s Katharina Althaus with 124,5 and 121,5 meters and 237,0 points. In foggy but steady conditions Jaqueline Seifriedsberger of Austria finished the season on a 5th place with 234,7 points ahead of Slovenia´s Ema Klinec with 226,6 points. Vogt not as strong as in the training World Champion Carina Vogt could not quite confirm her training jumps and came in 7th with 222,3 points ahead of Chiara Hoelzl of Austria. Places nine and ten went to Germany´s mixed team World Champion Svenja Wuerth and Yuka Seto of Japan. Maja Vtic of Slovenia just missed out on the top ten and came in 11th head of Kaori Iwabuchi and Elena Runggaldier of Italy. Julia Kykkaenen finished on a good 14th place for Finland. Best French athlete was Lea Lemare on 16th pace behind Spela Rogelj. Englund best US girl Nita Englund and Sarah Hendrickson finished 19th and 21st for the US team. Anastasiya Barannikova was best Russian on 20th place. In the overall ranking Sara Takanashi is finishing first for the 4th time with 1455 points ahead of Yuki Ito with 1208 point. 99 points behind Maren Lundby claimed the overall podium for the first time finishing third. Places 4 and 5 went to Germany with Katharina Althaus and Carina Vogt. Iraschko best Austrian of the season Best Austrian is Daniela Iraschko-Stolz, who did not compete in Oslo, on 6th place ahead of the best Slovenian Ema Klinec and Jaqueline Seifriedsberger. Irina Avvakumova and Svenja Wuerth completing the top ten. Japan best team The Nation´s Cup is going to Japan 3357 points ahead of Germany (2685) and Slovenia. Austria, who won the ranking in the past two years, just missed out on the podium and came in 4th (1651). Full Results Here Womens Ski Jumping 2016/17 World Cup Final Ranking Here Womens Nations Cup Final Ranking Here

a little return to yesterdays careers best of Paulína and here it is. Paulína´s first ever IBU after race interview in english Ivona to her sister in the start of the video: "you had 4 zeros ?"

FIS SNOWBOARDING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Men's Halfpipe Final Results JAMES Scotty 97.50F PODLADTCHIKOV Iouri 93.25F BURGENER Patrick 90.50F ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Women's Halfpipe Final Results CAI Xuetong 90.75F MATSUMOTO Haruna 84.75F GRIMAL Clemence 79.00F Defending champions keep hold to their titles Xuetong Cai (CHN) and Scotty James (AUS) have successfully defended their halfpipe world championships title at the Sierra Nevada 2017 FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboard World Championships under the lights in the early Spanish night. And it was a night to remember as the top 6 women and 10 men of Friday's qualifiers not only pulled of a great show but also as things wrapped up with a historic result, too. For the first time ever, both defending champions were able to repeat their titles earned two years ago. In fact, Scotty James became the first male rider ever to pull off this feat. And the 22-year-old from down under had to fight hard for it as he had to face some fierce competition. However, James who had descended on Andalusia with a huge confidence boost having won the Olympic test event in South Korea a few weeks ago as well as the halfpipe World Cup title, had paved his road to a title defence in his first run scoring a massive 95.75. But being the last to drop in in each run, he witnessed that his rivals were giving in everything they had to bump him off the top spot. As a result, James fired one off in his second run adding even more amplitude to his clean and well-executed frontside 900 to backside 1260, frontside double cork 1080 and cab double cork 1080. A smart move as fans and judges alike were wowed, and James given a 97.50 which secured him his career's second in style ahead of Olympic champion Iouri Podladtchikov (SUI; 93.25) and Pat Burgener (SUI; 90.50). “I did it again, I'm super stoked. It's been such an awesome event here, such different conditions for us to ride, and I think all of us have been really liking it. I came out with a plan just to work really hard this week and finish off well, and I'm very happy to come home with the Gold,” he recapped his week in Spain. As if there wouldn't have been enough reps already, the dominating rider of the season also had the time to repeat his victory lap of 2015 when he stopped his run by sliding down on the coping and high-fiving with the fans along the pipe. “You know, it's one of those things you always think about but you don't know what you do when the time comes. And I remembered my victory lap from Kreischberg, and I appreciate the fans coming out here and watching us and getting pretty cold. So, I do whatever I can do to say thank you to all this people who come out to watch.” However, there was one rider who almost would have ruined this moment almost every athlete is dreaming off: Iouri Podladtchikov. The world champion of 2013 had also set his claim for another Gold trying to improve his score when he needed it the most. But after nailing a massive mc twist 1260 to back-to-back double cork 1080s the Swiss superstar couldn't land his alley oop double rodeo whilst also suffering a slight knee injury. “My right knee hurts a little bit, but I think it's middle bad. It could cost me a few weeks though. I think it would have been enough to beat Scotty [James]. I was on course, but I was getting excited about it too early. So, I'm thinking 'Mhhhhh!' But you know what, you must not be unhappy about Silver,” iPod stated following the official medal ceremony which was staged right in the finish zone. Over in the women's event, Cai tied on to where she had wrapped up things in the qualifiers yesterday: dominating the competition. The Chinese ripper started her run off with a huge air to fakie before nailing a cab 720, back-to-back 540's and a sweet frontside 720 to finish things off claiming the precious Gold with a score of 90.75. “I'm so excited,” she said. “There are no other words. I'm just so happy. I had one run in mind, and I put it down. That was the goal for the day.” A goal which made her the second ever woman to repeat a halfpipe world championships title since Doriane Vidal (FRA) who had prevailed back in 2001, 2003 and 2005. Haruna Matsumoto (JPN; 84.75) and 2015 bronze medallist Clemence Grimal (FRA; 79.00) rounded out the podium as respective second and third. The 12th FIS Snowboard World Championships in Sierra Nevada, Spain continue tomorrow with the snowboard cross finals starting at 12 PM CET. Several TV stations will broadcast the knock out rounds staged in heats of 6 live. Click here for an update on the TV times. Full Finals Results Men and Women Cai Xuetong 2017 Halfpipe Womens World Champion and Scotty James 2017 Halfpipe Mens World Champion

Shiffrin wins back-to-back in Squaw, takes slalom title Mikaela Shiffrin locked up the 2017 slalom discipline title on Saturday with her second win in as many days at Squaw Valley (USA). She was joined on the podium by Czech skier Sarka Strachova in second and Austrian Bernadette Schild in third. “(The slalom title) was my first, highest goal so it’s pretty important but I tried not to think about it in the first run today or at all today and now I can think about that a bit more; I’m quite excited," said Shiffrin. "“I made recoveries and came out with the win, and I think Wendy (Holdener) was going for it. I know how it feels to lose it on the last two gates and that absolutely sucks. It’s a huge bummer. I knew there was a chance (to win both races), and I just tried to do my best to make it happen and I’m very happy to be on this side of the weekend.” Holdener lead Shiffrin by only 0.02 seconds after the first run but skied out on the final gates of the course. "The hill is quite difficult. It’s steep and you have to push from the start to the finish,” Steachova said. “I felt quite comfortable in the first run, maybe too much, and I lost a little more time. In the second run, the course was a bit broken and it’s not my cup of tea, but I tried to take a risk and when I went through the finish and I saw that I was in the lead, I believed that maybe it could be a podium.” For Schild, it was her first podium in three years and also the first ladies' slalom podium of the season for Austria. "I like difficult races so I knew this hill with the steep start and the rollers at the bottom could be something for me. I had quite the mistake in the first run actually but I knew that if I do my thing and ski technically the way I can, I really can make the podium. Wendy was leading after first run and she was really close to finishing but she went out but that’s how it is and I got third," said Schild. Veronika Velez Zuzulova skied out on the first run which gave the discipline title to Shiffrin prior to the Finals race in Aspen next weekend. Full Results Here Mikaela Shiffrin 1st and 2nd Run + W. Holdener 2nd Run

oh no this is very very bad week..very very bad

Austria takes first team victory since 2014 The team of Austria, with Michael Hayboeck, Manuel Fettner, Markus Schiffner and Stefan Kraft, won an exciting team competition on the Holmenkollen in Oslo. They scored a total of 999.7 points with their eight jumps and came in close ahead of Germany (987.2 points) and the Polish team (986.7 points). The local heroes of Norway finished fourth, 3.6 points behind Poland. The top 4 in a team event haven't been that close yet this winter. After eight jumps of every team on the Holmenkollen, the winners and the fourth-placed team were only separated by 16.7 points. A week ago Poland took the win at the WSC in Lahti, this team the Austrians finished on top. Michael Hayboeck, Manuel Fettner, Markus Schiffner and Stefan Kraft secured the first team victory for Austria in almost three years. The last time the team of Heinz Kuttin, who is not in Oslo due to an illness, could celebrate a win was in March 2014. "This was a sensational competition, it was not looking that good for us yesterday. It was not easy today, the wind was changing fast and often. There was head wind at the take-off and starting at about 100 m there was tail wind. This made it difficult to jump today", said double World Champion Stefan Kraft, who took the lead in the Raw Air Tournament with his two top jumps. "That's good, but we only had 3 of the 16 jumps, it's still a long way to go until Vikersund", Kraft said about this leading position in the overall ranking of the Raw Air. Second top athlete of the Austrians today was Michael Hayboeck, who was able to show a great performance after he was struggling a bit recently. "It was a relief for me that I was able to show what I'm really capable of in this team competition", said Hayboeck after the 28th win in a World Cup team competition for Austria. The German team of head coach Werner Schuster can also be satisfied with the second place. Andreas Wellinger, Stephan Leyhe, Richard Freitag and Markus Eisenbichler, were fourth in Lahti and could celebrate a podium finish after a strong performance today. A close team performance was the decisive factor for the success of the German team. "All in all it was a good performance. I'm satisfied with the competition and the result", said Werner Schuster. The newly crowned team World Champions from Poland finished third in front of many enthusiastic Polish fans in Oslo. Piotr Zyla, Dawid Kubacki, Maciej Kot and Kamil Stoch showed yet another strong performance but came in close behind the top this time. "It was a good competition. We missed the second place, or even the victory by a really tiny margin. That doesn’t change the fact that we are still very satisfied with our result today. We fought until the very end, we did our very best. We did make some minor mistakes, fortunately it was enough for a podium. The atmosphere at the hill was great, it almost felt like home. I would like to thank the Polish fans for making it a very special day for us", Kamil Stoch summed up the competition for his team. The Norwegian team, that started with high expectations after the second place in Lahti, was not satisfied with the fourth place in this home event. Especially Daniel Andre Tande was struggling with the wind conditions and the jury decision after his first jump. Not even a good final jump could make up for the disappointment in the first round. Japan, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Switzerland finished on the places five to eight. After three of 16 competition jumps, Austria's Stefan Kraft leads the Raw Air overall ranking with 404.3 points, followed by Peter Prevc of Slovenia (395.2 points) and Andreas Wellinger (392.7 points). Piotr Zyla of Poland is fourth with 392.2 points. Full Results Here

31st. only by 0.01

FIS SNOWBOARDING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Men's Slopestyle Final Results SMITS Seppe 91.40F HUBER Nicolas 83.25F CORNING Chris 82.50F ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Women's Slopestyle Final Results BLOUIN Laurie 78.00F SADOWSKI SYNNOTT Zoi 77.50F ONITSUKA Miyabi 77.40F Blouin and Smits win slopestyle Gold at world champs Laurie Blouin (CAN) and Seppe Smits (BEL) have claimed the first snowboard titles of the Sierra Nevada 2017 FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboard World Championships coming out successful of the slopestyle finals this afternoon. However, a blue bird sky and warm temperatures made it hard for the best eight women and 16 men of Thursday's qualifiers to land their runs as they were struggling with the challenging course conditions. With landing a clean run on the soft and slushy surface being the key to success, the Canadian as well as Belgium rider finally put things together in the second run of the two runs best one count finals to walk away with the precious titles. Blouin scored a 78.00 to earn her career's first gold in what might have been the closest finish of a slopestyle final in the recent years. The 2013 junior world champion, who was sitting in fifth position after run one, got technical going for the title throwing down a switch backside 180 indy to frontside 540 indy, a cab double cork 900 mute and a backside 360 melon on the four-jump line before finishing things off with a backside air and a 50-50 frontside 180 out in the jibbing section. The 20-year-old therefore edged off teenage slopestyle sensation Zoi Sadowski Synnott (NZL, 77.50) and dethroned champion Miyabi Onitsuka (JPN, 77,40) to the respective second and third rank. “I'm pretty happy. It's been just an incredible week here. The weather has been on our side. It's super fun, I'm happy. I didn't expect it. You don't want to be too sure of yourself. But I worked so hard, and that just proofed me that the work that I did was worth it,” Blouin said following her walk through the mixed zone. But the French Canadian couldn't explain what made the difference to edge of her rival from down under from the top spot with a tiny advantage of only 0.5: “I can't tell. I'm bad in judging.” However, runner-up Sadowski Synnott was also pleased with the result as making it to the finals had already been a huge success for the Kiwi who had traveled to Spain with the first full World Cup season under her belt. “I'm just stoked to put down a run. I was happy to get into finals, because it was top-8 already. Yeah, 0.5 are missing to the title but I'm just so happy to be on the podium,” the youngest rider in the women's competition who had just turned 16 last week stated after a switch backside 540 indy to frontside 360 tuck knee, backside 360 indy, double wildcat indy, frontside 180 to cab 180 and ollie to 50-50 frontside 180 out had secured her the Silver, having scored only 0.10 more than 2015 world champion Onitsuka. Over in the men's event, Seppe Smits once again delivered a perfect proof of being one of the strongest contest machines out there. Competing under the watchful eyes of King Felipe VI. Smits repeated his 2011 win he had also claimed on Spanish soil (La Molina) with a score of 91.40 relegating Nicolas Huber (SUI; 83.25) and Chris Corning (USA; 82.50) to the respective second and third rank. After a failure at the first rail had cost him a good score in run one, the first ever FIS slopestyle world champion capitalised on his experience and focused on what he had to do – and just did it: A backside double cork 1080 nose to frontside 900 mute (on side hit of the second kicker), a switch backside double cork 1080 mute, cab 1260 stalefish, backside 450 off and a switch ollie to half 50-50 to backside 360 off to finish things off might not have been the most difficult run of the men's finals, but truly one with huge amplitude and superb execution – something judges always look out for. But Smits wouldn't be Smits if he wouldn't have known: “It's crazy. I didn't expect it. I was trying to put a clean run together. It probably wasn't the hardest run we have seen today but I managed to bring it down pretty clean after I was struggling a bit in my first run on the first rail. When I got this one in my second one I was like 'OK. Get it now!'” And everyone could see in the finish area – although some hundred metres away from the last feature, a rail section built after the theme of an Andalusian village – how a huge pressure was literally falling off his shoulders. The 25-year-old who also has three big air world champs medals to his belt already clenched his fists and took a deep breath as he instantly understood that his run could earn him a medal despite the fact that he wasn't in the best physical conditions: “I had a pretty nasty slam this morning. So I have been riding pretty soar all day, and then to land that run was just such a relief. It was crazy.” In the end, it was the rider from the flat lands of Belgium taking his second world championships title while another rider came from hero to zero. Nicolas Huber, a former park shaper in Corvatsch, had just sneaked into the Swiss team for the world championships although he wasn't part of the national team before. Switzerland's Head Coach Pepe Ragazzi explained: “We wanted to bring the best Swiss riders, not the best four from the national team. So we did a qualifier in Laax, and he made the team. And he sure will make the national team now.” Nevertheless, being a blank paper before entering his first ever world championships with only one World Cup start under his belt dating back to January at the LAAX OPEN, Huber was probably most surprised of his performance. After leading the men's finals after run one thanks to a double cork 900 rodeo melon to cab 900 mute, frontside 1080 tail, backside triple cork 1440 melon, frontside 180 up to cab 360 and an ollie to frontside 50-50 to frontside 360 out, he didn't know where he was ranked before dropping in for his second run. Actually, the 22-year-old goofy rider was thinking that the other boys would have definitely kicked him out of the top-3. But when he arrived in front of the sponsor wall in the finish he noticed his score and a beaming smile as well as pure joy took over control of him: “It's unbelievable. I still can't believe what just happened. When I came down after my second run, I was still in first and I was thinking 'Man, there has to be a mistake on the screen'. I'm super happy that I made it on the podium.” Chris Corning, the only one of the finals to land back-to-back 1440's rounded out the podium as third, being also happy about his performance after he had struggled not only with the soft conditions today but also with several injuries this season: “It was hard to work through as it was pretty soft. But I'm happy. After all my injuries I had to battle through this season, it feels pretty awesome to bring home a medal. Glad to win some money because it cost a lot of money to come here.” The 12th FIS Snowboard World Championships in Sierra Nevada, Spain continue tonight with the halfpipe finals starting at 8 PM CET which are broadcasted live in several countries. Click here for an update on the TV times. Full Finals Results Men and Women Laurie Blouin 2017 Womens Slopestyle World Champion and Seppe Smits 2017 Mens Slopestyle World Champion

Akito Watabe collects his third King’s Cup in Oslo Japanese superstar Akito Watabe has been the first athlete to beat the top German athletes in an individual event this winter and with this victory, the Lahti2017 silver medallist claimed his ninth World Cup victory and third triumph in Oslo. As at the past two times, he received the coveted King’s Cup out of King Harald of Norway’s hands. Young Austrian Franz-Josef Rehrl clinched his first-ever jumping win in a competition round with a beautiful effort of 131 metres. A total of 119.9 points gave Rehrl a 3-second lead on teammate Mario Seidl, who continued his series of great jumping performances. 128.5 metres put him in the second position for the race. Veteran Björn Kircheisen impressed with 126 metres and the third intermediate position. After great World Championships, the 33-year-old seems to continue with strong results. He started his race 12 seconds after the intermediate leader Rehrl. Behind the top three, the field’s strong jumpers took up the Top Ten positions. Maxime Laheurte, Willi Denifl, Akito Watabe, Francois Braud and Eero Hirvonen started their race between 14 and 46 seconds after Rehrl. The duel for the overall World Cup lead promised to be a tight one as well today. Eric Frenzel succeeded a little more on the jumping hill and showed 123 metres (109 p., rank nine), which gave him a start delay of 44 seconds. Johannes Rydzek struggled a little more, collected only 104.4 points for 120 metres and had to contend with a time disadvantage of one minute and two seconds. A fast group of skiers formed around Rydzek at the one minute mark with Magnus Moan (+1:07), Fabian Rießle (+1:11) and Jørgen Graabak (+1:18). Mikko Kokslien and Alessandro Pittin formed another fast duo on a shared rank 35 (+1:45). The leading athletes skied a tactical, slow race in the beginning and so Eric Frenzel and Akito Watabe closed the gap to the top group around Björn Kircheisen quickly. After that, it was all about keeping the speed high enough to keep the charging fast athletes, with Johannes Rydzek as their lead, at a distance without losing too much energy. The lead changed between athletes but ultimately, Frenzel and Watabe were able to put some distance between them and Björn Kircheisen and Francois Braud on the last lap. Johannes Rydzek skied for his life and tried to reach the top group but was not fully able to close the gap early enough to stay with his rival Frenzel and Watabe to fight for the victory. He did, however, close the gap to a very tired Björn Kircheisen and Francois Braud and while the Frenchman had to let go of the two Germans, veteran Kircheisen found a last reservoir of power and wrestled Rydzek down in a finish line sprint. In the end, Watabe won his sprint for the victory by 0.4 seconds and Eric Frenzel was able to celebrate with buddy Björn Kircheisen, who finished 14.1 seconds behind Watabe. Rydzek was 0.1 second behind him, Braud claimed rank five and Fabian Rießle and Manuel Faißt completed a fantastic German team performance with five athletes in the Top Ten on ranks six and nine. Fastest man on the track was Alessandro Pittin from Italy, who needed 22:39.5 for the 10 km and improved to position eleven. Full Results Here

Sundby repeats at Holmenkollen, secures crystal globe Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby has become the first male skier to win back to back Holmenkollen World Cups. He won today’s 50 km classic mass start competition in a time of 2:02:59.7 just +9.9 ahead of second place finisher Iivo Niskanen of Finland. In third place was Russia’s Alexander Bessmertnykh +1:15.2 back. Bessmertnykh took third in a 3-way photo finish with Norwegian’s Sjur Roethe and Niklas Dyrhaug. Canada’s Alex Harvey and recent 50 km World Champion from Lahti finished just 0.2 behind the trio. Full Results Here