VANCOUVER, Jan. 26 -- Winter Olympic gold medalist Michela Moioli of Italy and her countryman Omar Visintin took the women's and men's titles respectively at the third leg of 2019-2020 FIS Snowboard Cross World Cup in Canada's Big White snow resort on Saturday.
Racing under foggy weather conditions with heavy snowfalls, the 24-year-old Moioli, winner of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games, led from the start to win the four-woman big final, followed by Australian skier Belle Drockhoff. Alex Deibold of the United States finished third ahead of Frenchwoman Nelly Moenne Loccoz.
It was the second straight World Cup victory for Moioli as she also took the top honors at the second leg in Cervinia, Italy last month. Moioli sits atop the cup standings with 2,800 points, 900 points ahead of second-ranked Drockhoff.
"It was really foggy, but the course was a lot of fun. It was an old school course with eight turns which made for really tight racing," said Moioli. "This morning I really didn't think that I could win, but I made it and I am super, super happy."
The men's big final saw local favorite Eliot Grondin take an early lead in front of a cheering home crowd. But the young Canadian's attempt to grab his maiden World Cup victory came in to vain as he was passed by Visintin in the penultimate turn and had to settle for the runner-up position. The third place went to Alex Deibold of the United States.
"It was a really tight race. Eliot was in first almost throughout the entire race, I knew I had to pass him in that second-last turn, it was my only chance and I took it and it was for sure great racing from everyone," said the Italian.
According to the original program plan, a mixed team snowboard cross, which is not a World Cup event, is scheduled to be held on Sunday. However, since the fourth leg of the World Cup competitions slated for February 1 to 2 in Feldberg, Germany has been cancelled due to lack of snow and warm temperatures, the FIS has decided, after discussing with the local organizers, to hold another individual competition on Sunday instead.
"In that way, the FIS Snowboard Cross World Cup Tour does not lose an individual competition and athletes will be able to give it everything in the battle for valuable World Cup points," the FIS said on its website.