HSV Red Bull Salzburg athletes on course for a medal at the home World Cup
© Sports report
After two of six rounds in skydiving and two rounds in giant slalom, the hosts from HSV Red Bull Salzburg, in leading positions at the World Cup in Para-Ski in St. Johann in the Snow Space Salzburg ski area, which is still taking place until tomorrow.
In the team classification, the current top position of the HSV Red Bull Salzburg team l offers a perfect starting point for tomorrow’s final day. On Sunday, April 3rd, from 9 a.m. in the St. Johanner Alpendorf, the Salzburg athletes will have to give their all again and defend the podium in the fight for the overall World Cup.
It’s been hot in the skies of the St. Johanner Alpendorf since Friday, because 8 teams, each consisting of four jumpers from 6 nations, are fighting for valuable centimeters and seconds at the Para-Ski World Cup. Every weather window is used at the moment when it comes to parachute jumps at the current Para-Ski World Cup in St. Johann in Salzburg. Because poor visibility, rain and low-lying clouds put a spanner in the works for the skydivers on the first day of the competition. Due to the persistent rain, only two rounds could be completed on Friday evening and the third round could only be partially completed. Every break in the rain was really used to complete the two laps necessary for the classification. Shortly after noon, the first helicopter took off to take the athletes to an altitude of over 1,000 meters. From there, they then jump off in order to land with centimeter precision on a target that is just the size of a ten-cent coin.
But the athletes from the host club HSV Red Bull Salzburg didn’t let the stand-by breaks shake them and kept their nerves. After the jumping, the HSV Red Bull Salzburg team was able to create a top starting position for skiing with third place. The team (Sophie Grill, Magdalena Schenner, Manuel Sulzbacher and Anton Gruber) starts the ski race with a deviation of 73 cm.
The Saturday morning was all about skiing, because now the athletes had to prove their skills in the giant slalom on the Sunday Kogel. Thanks to top results in both rounds, the host club’s first team can still reach for victory in the team classification. This means that the people of Salzburg are still on course for a medal in the individual rankings. Sophie Grill, for example, thanks to the absolute best times in skiing, takes first place in the women’s (followed by her teammate Magdalena Schenner) and in the juniors’ ranking (followed by her teammate Michael Urban) with two more medal chances in the other ski jumping rounds. Local hero Anton Gruber is also on the list of tomorrow’s medal candidates with second place in the Masters and ninth place in the men’s giant slalom. The first one and a half days of competition also went very well for the remaining athletes from HSV Red Bull Salzburg, despite the difficult conditions. Team HSV Red Bull Salzburg ll (Michael Urban, Bernhard Voglmayr, Joachim Knauss and Christian Irausek) is still in tomorrow’s race for the medals with third place.
On tomorrow’s final day, Sunday, from 9:00 a.m., it’s all about the athletes again. Because in addition to the Austrian state championship titles and the ÖHSV championship, the main thing is the overall ranking of the World Cup series in para-ski. Thus, on April 3rd, the Salzburg athletes in particular are on their way to the coveted World Cup trophy at the highlight of the winter season in St. Johann in Salzburg
The discipline PARA-SKI
The competition discipline PARA-SKI consists of PARA (derived from “Parachute”) and the alpine giant slalom (SKI). In FIS-regulated ski racing, the aim is to be as fast as possible in two runs and as accurate as possible in six jump runs. The target jump is scored in penalty points, which are awarded depending on the distance to the large target point, with each centimeter deviation being counted as a penalty point. The time in the giant slalom is also converted into points, starting from the winning time: the winner of the giant slalom has zero penalty points and the time of those behind is converted into points so that about 0.3 seconds one point. So 1 second 3 points. In target jumping, these points correspond exactly to the distance in cm. (1cm = one point). Along with the time in the race, these points are the final result.
The competitive sport of para-ski has its origins in the Austrian air rescue services. Pilots and parachutists were trained there for rescue operations in mountain accidents, avalanches and flood disasters. During winter search and mountain operations in alpine terrain, material was dropped from fixed-wing aircraft and rescue teams were then dispatched. Accuracy with the parachute and skiing skills were basic requirements for the rescuers. Since the rescue operations were relatively rare, however, in addition to the effective training, international friendly competitions soon developed, and thus a World Cup series and from 1987 also an official World Championship of the FAI (World Air Sports Association).
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HSV Red Bull Salzburg
04/02/2022