The 11th FIS Snowboard Junior World Championships are in progress in Bad Gastein (AUT) this week. Enjoying excellent spring snow conditions and superb weather, almost 300 of the world’s best young boarders born between 1987–1991 are competing in the Gastein Valley, just an hour from Salzburg.

The competitions began Wednesday with the snowboardcross races for the ladies and men. The first two titles both went to Norway as Helene Olafsen, bronze medalist in the FIS Snowboard World Championships in Arosa (SUI) in January, took the ladies’ title and Stian Sivertzen the men’s. Olafsen, silver medalist at last year's Junior Worlds, successfully competed against Alexandra Jekova (BUL), Brooke Shaw (USA) and Emilie Aubry (SUI).

On the men's side, the podium was dominated by athletes well-known on the NOKIA Snowboard FIS World Cup tour. Stian Sivertzen came in first ahead of Markus Schairer from Austria. Australia's Alex Pullin rounded out the podium knocking Maximilian Stark (GER) out of the medal ranks.

“Today’s race was excellent, perfectly organized and held in beautiful weather,” commented Marcel Looze, FIS Race Director Snowboard. ”We can already look forward to more great boarding action as the competitions continue with parallel giant slalom tomorrow and both big air and parallel slalom events on Friday.”

FIS press

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