Anna Gasser has won pretty much everything there is to win in snowboarding, and on Saturday the 31-year-old drew on her experience to show once again why she’s considered to be one of the greatest to ever do it.
Anna Gasser went all-in on her first run of the finals, dropping the cab double cork 1260 melon that she landed for the first time in competition at Beijing 2022 to win Olympic gold.
Earning a score of 87.75 for her first trick, Anna Gasser already had what would be the highest-scoring jump of the competition already in the bag, and on run two she was able to put down a perfect - if somewhat safe, by her standards - double cork 1080 melon to head into run three with the lead in the contest and the honors of the final drop-in of the women’s competition.
When none of her other competitors could match her two-jump score of 162.50, Gasser was able to run a victory lap, and while she’d end up falling on another go-round on the backside dub 1080, her job was already done, and she would claim Bakuriani 2023 big air gold to go along with her previous title from the Sierra Nevada 2017 World Championships.
“It was really tough conditions out here today and practice didn’t go my way at all,” a relieved Gasser said from the finish area, “Everyone who competed today went to their limits to make this happen. We had snow, we had rain, we had wind and I’m just happy I landed on my feet. It wasn’t the best tricks I can do, but it was enough for today’s conditions.”
Second place and the silver medal would go to Japan’s Miyabi Onitsuka, who would earn her second podium at these World Championships after taking slopestyle bronze on Monday. Stomping a frontside 1080 melon on run one, and then needing her third and final run to put down a clean backside double 1080 Weddle grab, Onituka would earn a combined score of 161.25 on her way to silver.
On top of that, with her two Bakuriani 2023 podiums this week Onitsuka moves into a tie with Zoi Sadwoski-Synnott (NZL) and Seppe Smits (BEL) with five World Championships top threes, with those three tied for the most World Champs freestyle snowboard competition history.
Taking home the bronze medal would be Australia’s Tess Coady, as the 22-year-old who also won slopestyle bronze at Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games stomped a backside double cork 1080 Indy in run one and followed that up with a frontside 900 tail grab in run two for a score of 153.25 and the second World Championships podium of her career.
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