No fixed tickets, but

The rising star of the season comes from the Ländle

Leonie Lussnig (center) not only surprised herself in her very first season as a ski cross racer.(Bild: zVg)

Qualification for the last European Cup competition of the winter on the Reiteralm in Styria was still possible on Thursday. However, the race was no longer possible - the piste and weather simply didn't play ball. Time to take stock of the season.

A season that has not brought Vorarlberg's men the fixed places they had hoped for in the coming World Cup season. The best VSV man was Nicolas Lussnig from Oberland - who twice finished third on the podium - in eleventh place. 15th place went to Simon Fleisch. The Montafon native finished directly ahead of Claudio Andreatta from Klostertal, who won a qualifying race in Les Contamines (Fra) and was listed as the winner after the race was canceled.

Lussnig (2nd from left) put the pedal to the metal on the course.(Bild: Crosspark Reiteralm)

First season, two podium places
There were no fixed tickets for the ÖSV ladies either, but with Leonie Lussnig from the Oberland, they had THE rising star of the season. The 18-year-old only decided to switch from alpine skiing to ski cross in the summer of 2023. "To be honest, I didn't even expect to be able to compete in the European Cup this winter," says the Kästle racer, who finished on the EC podium twice in her rookie season and now has another big goal: "The Junior World Championships in Idre are in mid-April. A medal would be really cool there."