Benjamin Karl celebrates hat trick – Carinthian championship thrilled!

Benjamin Karl celebrates hat trick – Carinthian championship thrilled!

Benjamin Karl, the Olympic snowboard champion, celebrated an impressive hat trick with his triumphant victory at the Austrian parallel giant slalom championship on February 8th at Simonhöhe in Carinthia. In a thrilling final, the 38-year-old from Lower Austria defeated Andreas Prommegger from Salzburg and secured the championship title. “Against Andi, as always, I had to give it my all to win,” said the winner after the competition dolomitenstadt.at reported. The Carinthian Alexander Payer came third and defeated the Styrian Christoph Karner in the small final.

Just one day later, Karl expanded his success by winning the parallel slalom, thus continuing his impressive series. He prevailed again against Christoph Karner and secured his 22nd World Cup success overall. With his victory in Rogla on February 12th, where he overtook the Italian Aaron March in the final, Karl further extended his lead in the overall and RTL World Cup the press. Karl expressed his enthusiasm: "It's a dream that I achieved the hat trick. It was so close, luck was on my side."

More successes and challenges

Sabine Schöffmann, also a remarkable athlete, secured third place in Rogla and returns to Carinthia with this success. She defeated Salzburg's Claudia Riegler in the second knockout round, but failed in the semifinals. However, in the small final she proved her strength and secured a place on the podium, beating top German athlete Ramona Hofmeister by just 0.05 seconds.