World Cup season kicks off in Switzerland
Published Fri 20 Oct 2023
Another bumper season of FIS World Cup action gets underway this week with Freeski and Snowboard Big Air competitions taking place in the Graubünden city of Chur.
The Big Air Chur features a brand-new jump set-up with 35m of the world-renowned JF Dry Ski technology on the in-ramp, which then transitions to snow a few metres before the compression, with the jump and landing constructed of snow as per usual.
Freeski heats and finals were set to take place on Friday, however with rain forecast for Friday morning, action got underway on Thursday.
Kai Martin made his World Cup debut overnight after an impressive start to his career in Australian colours. Having crossed over from competing under the Canadian flag, Martin recently won the Australia New Zealand Cup Slopestyle event in The Remarkables.
He went on to finish the ANC in second place overall having also finished runner-up in the Nor-Am Cup in season 2022/23. Martin is no stranger to the Big Air ramp, winning the Nor-Am Cup competitions in Quebec for the last two seasons.
In Thursday's qualifying, Kai had an impressive second run, but unfortunately couldn't perfect his landing, finishing with 27.33 point to place 20th overall.
In the snowboard competition which gets underway on Saturday, Valentino Guseli gets the opportunity to start this season the way he finished the last when he won the Crystal Globe in both Big Air and overall Park & Pipe.
Guseli was sixth at this event last year, but gained confidence to produce his first Big Air World Cup win in the following competition in Canada.
Joining Guseli at the top of the ramp is Josh Robertson-Hahn who is on World Cup debut this week.
The 18-year-old - who is just 80 days older than Guseli - has spent the last two seasons competing in European and Nor-Am Cups, and is coming off a ninth place finish in Big Air at the Junior World Championships in New Zealand.
Men’s heats are scheduled to get under way at 9pm AEDT on Saturday with finals to follow on Sunday at 5am.
Ben Wordsworth, Snow Australia General Manager - Sport, said the next six months is sure to produce some exciting results and blood some new talent.
“This weekend’s competition in Switzerland is a sign of what we’re going to see from Australian athletes over the course of the upcoming season,” he said. “On one hand we have Valentino Guseli who is defending two Crystal Globes, while Josh Robertson-Hahn and Kai Martin are lining up for their World Cup debuts.
“The competition will continue to build as we approach December when the northern winter will be in full swing across all the disciplines.”
