Wild ends wait for World Cup parallel giant slalom victory

vicwild - cropped

Vic Wild claimed his first FIS Alpine Snowboard World Cup win in over a year with victory in the parallel giant slalom in Rogla.

The Russian beat Mirko Felicetti by 0.25 seconds in the Big Final on Saturday, giving the Winter Olympic champion the first parallel giant slalom victory of his career.

Wild was in control in the opening rounds in Slovenia as he beat Christoph Mick and Valery Kolegov with ease, however his semi-final win over Kaspar Fluetsch was much closer.

Both men showed good pace on the course but it was Wild who eventually prevailed, beating the Swiss by 0.07secs.

In the Big Final, Wild was able to see off the charge of Felicetti, ending a superb day for the Italian that included beating overall standings leader Zan Kosir in the semi-final.

Kosir had been the fastest in qualifying and cruised into the last four, however he was unable to record successive wins and had to settle for third - beating Fluetsch in the Small Final by 0.52secs.

The Slovenian may have been disappointed not to record another win, but he remains top of all standings, albeit with Wild cutting his advantage in this discipline to just 80 points.

In the overall leaderboard, Kosir's buffer has been extended to 710 points thanks to Roland Fischnaller's failure to progress from qualifying.

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