Snowboard cross

World champion Dusek takes first podium of the season

Snowboard cross world champion Jakob Dusek finished third on Sunday in Sierra Nevada to claim his first World Cup podium finish of the season. After initially taking the lead in the final, the Lower Austrian was only beaten by Frenchman Merlin Surget and Canadian World Cup leader Eliot Grondin. Olympic champion Alessandro Hämmerle (9th) and Julian Lüftner (13th) were both eliminated in the quarter-finals.

For Dusek, it was his seventh podium finish in the World Cup overall, his first since second place at last season's World Cup final in Mont-Sainte-Anne. "After the first half of the season didn't go at all as I had imagined, the relief now is huge," said the 27-year-old. "It's good to be on the podium and to see that I can race at the front again."

Five races left in the season
Hämmerle collected 29 points for ninth place. In the overall World Cup standings, however, the Vorarlberg native is already 301 points behind Grondin in second place. Five season competitions are still to come, the next one next Saturday in Cortina.

Pia Zerkhold finished tenth in the women's event after missing out on a place in the semi-finals in a photo finish. Italian Michela Moioli took the win after two of her competitors crashed in the final.