Swiss snowboarders garner more medals

Olympic gold medallist Philipp Schoch won silver in Arosa Keystone

Philipp Schoch has won another silver medal for Switzerland at the World snowboard championships in the Swiss resort of Arosa.

His teammates, Fränzi Kohli and Heinz Inniger, clinched bronze in the women’s and men’s parallel giant slalom events on Tuesday.

Schoch, double Olympic gold medallist at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, fell in the first heat of the final and came second behind Slovenia’s Rok Flander.

“I’m very happy, I got what I wanted,” Schoch told swissinfo.

“I began to feel my injury as the competition went on. I think Flander deserved to win today,” he added.

Third-placed Inniger had to race against Schoch in the semi-finals and lost, but went on to take bronze against one of the favourites, Austria’s Siegfried Grabner.

Philipp Schoch’s brother Simon – World Cup leader in the discipline and silver medallist at the 2006 Olympics – had crashed out in the qualifying round and finished in 30th place.

Top of table

Kohli, who had put in a solid performance in the race for third place in the women’s competition, was still slightly disappointed with the result.

She had given away her 0.38 second advantage in the first heat of the semi-finals against Russia’s Ekaterina Tudigesheva, who later won gold ahead of Germany’s Amelie Kober.

On Sunday Sandra Frei won a first silver medal for Switzerland in the snowboard cross event.

So far Switzerland leads the medal table with a total of four medals.

The championships continue on Wednesday with the parallel slaloms, the Big Air event on Friday and the half-pipe competition on Saturday.

swissinfo

In brief

The FIS Snowboard World Championships are being held until January 20 in Arosa.

47 teams with 800 athletes from around the world are invited to Arosa to compete in five disciplines: snowboard cross, parallel giant slalom, parallel slalom, big-air and halfpipe.

This is the first time that the Snowboard World Championships have been held in Switzerland.

Results parallel giant slaloms

Men:
1. Rok Flander (Slovenia)
2. Philipp Schoch (Switzerland)
3. Heinz Inniger (Switzerland)


Women:
1. Ekaterina Tudigesheva (Russia)
2. Amelie Kober (Germany)
3. Fränzi Kohli (Switzerland)