First stop of the 2025 season in Austria completed
Round 1 of the 2025 World Downhill Skateboarding Championship came to a thrilling conclusion on Sunday 15th in soaring heat in the beautiful Austrian village of Axamer Lizum. The racing kicked off on a lighting quick road with the Women’s Luge where Loreline Pastor (FRA) took the victory ahead of Morrah Jakubiec (CAN) and Kim Marie Hilger (LUX) competing in her first race.
The women’s skate final featured the last two world champions in Selina Theiler (SUI) and Lisa Peters (NED). They were up against Ashley Winecoff (USA) and Marieke Wunsche (GER). Theiler and Peters battled from gun to tape trading blows on the fast straights and tight hairpins. In the end the 2024 world champion Theiler just had enough to taken the victory ahead of Peters with Wunsche finishing in 3rd.
Open skate round of 32 followed with some tough early heats. As the heats progressed the racing got tougher and tougher, early casualties in the quarter finals saw Adam Westfall (USA), a WDSC podium finisher in 2024 get knocked out along with 2023 World Champion Stefano Barbizzi (ITA). Drama was in store in the semi-finals. Top qualifier Adrien Paynel (FRA) made his way safely through to the final but semi-final two was dramatic. With places in the final up for grabs the battle went down to the final turn. Carnage ensued as all four riders fell on the final turn and after a protest it was Owen Fox (USA) and Harry Clarke (AUS) who progressed to the final.
The Open Skate final was one for the ages with Paynel, Clarke, Fox and Manning all in with a chance of victory. Manning (CAN) had the early lead but on the bottom section, Paynel made his move. Again, it went down to the final turn. Fox and Clarke were the first to crash then down went Paynel in the chaos that followed, all topped off by a sliding, boardless, Clarke cleaning out Dexter Manning. It was a race to get back on the boards, and that was won by Paynel who took his first WDSC victory with Manning in 2nd, Fox in 3rdand last seasons WDSC champion Harry Clarke taking 4th. This may be the first time at this level where the top 3 were all sharing the same rental car.
In a hotly contested Luge final, Abdil Mahdzan (MYS) dominated from start to finish. The Malaysian who missed last season is back and in style. Mahdzan kept in command of the race to take the win in round 1 ahead of David Frega (FRA) with Ulrich Becker (GER) taking the final spot on the podium. Last seasons Open Luge WDSC Champion Kolby Parks (CAN) finished in 4th. With the speed and skill on display in Axamer Lizum from Mahdzan, he’s shown he’ll be the man to beat this season.
The racing now moves to the famous track in Erzincan, Turkiye for round 2 between the 20th and 22nd June.