Dutch snowboarding duo triumph in World Cup Finals

World champion Vos recorded his best run of 59.19 to win the men’s SB-LL1 and lock the overall title.

The Netherlands closed the 2015-16 IPC Snowboard season on a high note on Friday (18 March), as a duo of Dutch athletes secured banked slalom globes with wins at the World Cup Finals in Trentino, Italy.

Chris Vos and Renske van Beek both topped their respective podiums.

World champion Vos recorded his best run of 59.19 to win the men’s SB-LL1 and lock the overall title.

Austria’s Reinhold Schett could not match Vos with his fastest time of 59.93, taking second in the banked slalom and in the overall rankings.

The Netherlands’ saw another podium finish from Mike Ultee (1:17.03) in third.

France’s Cecile Hernandez-Cervellon (1:11.86) was the victor in the women’s SB-LL1 ahead of Canada’s Michelle Salt.

The Frenchwoman secured the World Cup title ahead of the USA’s Nicole Roundy and Salt.

The Netherlands’ Bibian Mentel-Spee has been stunning since returning to competition in February and reminded the field why she is a world champion after winning the women’s SB-LL2 race.

Teammate Lisa Bunschoten (1:06.05) finished runner-up to her mentor but finished atop the banked slalom points rankings. Australia’s Joany Badenhorst (1:06.31) rounded out the race podium.

Bunschoten led Badenhorst and Mentel-Spee into second and third respectively in the overall standings.

Perhaps the closest battle for the overall title came in the men’s SB-LL2, as Finland’s Matti Suur-Hamari and the USA’s Michael Shea went head-to-head once again.

Despite finishing second, Suur-Hamari (54.62) did enough to seal the overall World Cup globe. Shea (54.80) finished third in the competition, and second in the overall rankings. His US teammate and Paralympic champion Evan Strong (54.58) won the banked slalom race but finished third overall.

The other Dutch World Cup triumph came from Van Beek, who won the women’s SB-UL with her best of three runs being 1:14.89. Italy’s Sara Dorigatti (1:17.14) was second and Argentina’s Celeste Pedrosa Bersano was third (1:47.81).

Austria’s Patrick Mayrhofer capped a good season in the men’s SB-UL, winning the banked slalom in 57.00.

However it was the USA’s Michael Minor (59.43), in his debut season, that claimed the banked slalom globe with a second place finish.

France’s Maxime Montaggioni (1:03.14) was third in the race.

In the Nations Cup, the USA were the victors ahead of the Netherlands and Austria.

Results and final rankings, including the winners of World Cup titles in each classification, are available at IPC Snowboard's website.

Competitions in Trentino conclude the high-level races for the 2015-16 IPC Snowboard season.