Sixth in the parallel slalom at the Snowboard World Cup in Berchtesgaden, Germany, Arnaud Gaudet tied his best individual World Cup result on Saturday. The 22-year-old, who had tied the same rank in the parallel slalom in Moscow in 2021, saw his day come to an end in the quarter-finals.
After beating the Italian Marc Hofer in the round of 16, Gaudet then faced the Slovenian Rok Margu, who had been the fastest in qualifying, and the latter won by 6 hundredths of a second. The two opponents fought hard for the lead, Gaudet took the lead with three gates to go, except that Margu had the last word at the very end.
“Yeah, that was almost heartbreaking for real,” the snowboarder said with mixed emotions. “I made a few mistakes at the top of the course where I lost some time. Otherwise it was still good, but it’s tough because I finished just 6 hundredths and it was really close. Without my mistakes, I think I could have had it without a problem, but these are things that happen and it was still a good day regardless. »
Gaudet’s killer made his way to the small final and he got the better of the American Cody Winters.
In an Austrian final, Fabian Obmann won ahead of Arvid Auner on the track which was in good condition despite the temperature hovering around 15 degrees.
“It’s still a difficult year where I had trouble doing two solid runs,” added Gaudet, recalling that his surprise bronze medal in the slalom parallel to the worlds was his achievement of his season. .
Justin Carpentier was unable to complete his qualifying run and he did not obtain a ranking.
Arnaud Gaudet is expected to skip Sunday’s team competition, which means his World Cup season is over. However, there will be American Championships to be held in Colorado in early April.
