Omar Visintin, historic bronze medalist

Omar Visintin third

Granitic Omar Visintin, able to win the bronze medal in snowboard cross at the World Championships in Bakuriani, Georgia. The 33-year-old alpine from Lagundo, after the bronze and silver won at the last Beijing Olympics, gave himself the satisfaction of enriching his palmares with the first individual rainbow medal in his career – second overall counting the second place in Solitude 2019 paired with Michela Moioli -, 12 years after his debut in a world event in La Molina (Spa), in 2011. The gold medal went to Austria’s Jakob Dusek, followed by Germany’s Martin Noerl.

Visintin overcame the first three rounds with fluency, gaining easy access to the Big Final where, after a very smart race and staying out of the tussle, he took advantage of the fall of Italian-born Austrian Alessandro Hammerle, overtaking him with just a few jumps to go. Lorenzo Sommariva, Filippo Ferrari and Michele Godino had surrendered in the sixteenth round.

In the women’s competition success for Czech Eva Admaczykova, thus repeating the gold obtained in Solitude 2019, ahead of 20-year-old Australian Josie Baff, who only a few months ago had given herself the joy of her first World Cup hurrah. Bronze medal to U.S. veteran Lindsey Jacobellis, fourth in the final to France’s Manon Petit Lenoir. Out in the quarters were Raffaella Brutto, Sofia Belingheri and Caterina Carpano, while Francesca Gallina had been ousted from the competition in the round of 16.

“I have been waiting a lot for this world medal,” said Visintin, “it is the seventh World Championship I have done and this is the first individual medal I have been able to win. The race was difficult, there was a lot of contact, it was very long and tiring. The track was good, there were some passages that were a bit difficult: the strongest athletes still came to the finish line in front. It’s a super important medal for me, I also had some difficult times at the end of last year, and I would like to dedicate it to those who were close to me. Now there is still the Team Event, in the afternoon the coaches will make the team, and there too we go all out.”