Elliott Wins, Huckaby Third in Kühtai
The Toyota U.S. Para Snowboard Team athletes are back in the banks for the first time since November, and the wait did not disappoint, with Noah Elliott and Brenna Huckaby taking the top and third steps of the podium, respectively.
The conditions were picture-perfect in Kühtai, Austria, for the first of two banked slalom races. After two great days of training and a few days of joyriding, the team was ready to be back in competition mode. In qualifying, Huckaby, Elliott, and Darian Haynes were the three U.S. athletes to advance to finals, as only the top four finishers in each classification move on to finals in banked slalom. Mike Schultz finished fifth in the men’s LL1 class. Zach Miller led the LL2 category in seventh, followed by Joe Pleban in 13th and Aleks Godowski in 14th. Colby Fields finished 13th in men’s UL. On the women’s side, Peggy Martin finished fifth in women’s UL. Kate Delson ended the day eighth in the LL1/LL2 classification, Dennae Russell in 12th and Rebecca Johnston in 13th.
In the finals, Huckaby was paired against Yanhong Geng (CHN) and prevailed, winning the small final by over 10 seconds. Huckaby admitted that she was surprised she finished on the podium today after struggling with a few of the turns on the course, so the third place was a major win in her book. Haynes finished the day fourth after her battle with Anna Drobna (POL). After qualifying in the top spot, Elliott continued his dominance by winning by almost two seconds over his opponent Zhongwei Wu (CHN) in the big final, earning his third win and fifth podium of the season.
Tomorrow, the team takes on the second banked slalom event in Austria starting at 3:35 am ET. Follow along on FIS Live Timing.
