The disappointment of missing the finals by 14 hundredths of a second was short-lived for Jules Lefebvre on Saturday at the World Cup in Scuol, Switzerland. By placing 17th in the parallel giant slalom, the snowboarder recorded the best result of his career on the circuit.
The Quebecer first set the 12th time on the blue course in the first round, i.e. 41.17 s. He then raced down the red track in 41.42 seconds and brought his cumulative time to 1 minute 22.59 seconds.
Masaki Shiba of Japan beat him at the end of qualifying to earn the last ticket to the round of 16.
“There was a little moment of frustration and disappointment earlier today, but it didn’t last long. I am very happy with my result,” Jules Lefebvre shared with Sportcom.
“After an atrocious start to the season, I was pretty nervous! The conditions were perfect, that doesn’t happen often in a season and I knew it was my day to perform! I’m happy that I delivered almost perfectly what I’m capable of doing right now. »
Lefebvre was ranked 37th and 35th in the two events held in Italy last month. His only parallel slalom outing ended with a 33rd place finish in Davos. He also missed the qualifying rounds at two European Cups in the Czech Republic.
“The month of December was hard on morale,” he summed up.
The Montrealer then started 2024 by winning a gold medal on the Nor-Am circuit and finished fifth the next day. Good training sessions followed and led to Saturday’s result.
For his part, Arnaud Gaudet took 29th place in this parallel giant slalom.
Both athletes return to action on Tuesday at the World Cup in Bad Gastein, Austria, where a parallel slalom will be featured.
