FIS Europa Cup: a big show in Białka Tatrzańska

For two days, the Kotelnica Białczańska Ski Resort has become a real European capital of action sports. Skiers, snowboarders and bikers from Austria, Algeria, Belarus, Czech Republic, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Sweden, and Ukraine competed on the large ski jump. Saturday's finals were accompanied by beautiful weather, which made the Garmin Winter Sports Festival 2020 undoubtedly the most spectacular sporting event of this winter in Poland.

Lithuanian Motiejus Morauskas triumphed among snowboarders. He won the victory by showing frontside 1080 indy (three turns around own axis) and backside 720 mute. Czech Kristian Salac, winner of the Friday's qualification, showed technically more difficult backside double cork 1080 and frontside 900 tailgrab, but the lack of a grab (grabbing the board edge while flying, which affected the rating of style) in the first jump and propped landing decided about his second place. Dante Brcic from Croatia was third. Katarzyna Rusin, the only one among all Polish representatives who went to the finals of the FIS Europa Cup competition in Białka Tatrzańska, was the best among snowboarders.

The level of the final skiers' competition of was extremely high. Double cork 1080 (three rotations around own axis) is the easiest trick which one should has shown to think about the top ten of the competitions. The fight for the top step on the podium finally took place between Dmitry Mulendeev from Russia and Emil Granbom from Sweden. The first presented double cork 1440 mute to the left and double cork 1260 mute to the right (rotations in two different directions). The Swedish champion in the Big Air competition and the current leader of the general classification of the FIS Europa Cup in the slopestyle competition, in turn, showed switch left double cork 1440 safety (ride on a ski jump from the back edge followed by four rotations around the own axis) and left double cork 1260 tail. Finally, 0.34 points decided that the guest from beyond the eastern border won. Finn Mikka Virkki was third, and Lena Prusakova from Russia triumphed among women.

The Polish Freeskiing Championships were also held as part of the Garmin Winter Sports Festival. This year the title went to Janek Burkiewicz, who secured the victory by jumping double cork 1260.

At the end of the day, bikers rode on the ski jump. As in previous years, they created an amazing spectacle, proving to everyone that freestyle biking is also a winter sport. Dawid Godziek secured his victory by presenting twister no hander. Paweł Stachak secured the second place by showing fronflip triple barspin. The third was an Austrian Dorian Macher, who made a backflip with a double tailwhip on the large ski jump. Aleksandra Ciupak, the only woman rider in the competition, landed with the backflip, which aroused loud applause from the audience gathered under the jump.

The replay of the competition live coverage can be watched on the YouTube channel of the event and the Facebook profile @ski2die.

More information and full results can be found on the website www.wsfest.pl