Paralumboarding World Cup gold sensitized Matti Suur-Hamarin: “When you get a drop in the lens, you know that this means a lot to me”

Matti Suur-Hamari celebrated gold and raised Finnish expectations for the Beijing Paralympics by winning the Paralympic Cross Cross World Championships in Lillehammer, Norway, on Friday.

Greater Hamari was already the fastest in Thursday’s qualifiers, and in the final he celebrated the victory with a time of 57.90. Silver fell to Australia Ben Tudhope and bronze in the United States Evan Strong. Greater Hamari was in the finish 0.37 seconds ahead of Tudhope.

“Today hit the button. It was a damn good day, and went according to plan. Yesterday (Thursday) gave an indication that he is running, and has also done well in training. It was a pretty easy track and a lot of slides, which made this a pretty lubricating race, ”said Suur-Hamari in a statement from the Snowboard Association and praised the team’s board wrestler. Juha Haukkalaa.

World Cup gold is the fourth career for Greater Hamar. Three of the world championships have become snowboard cross and one banked slalom. In 2018, he won gold in the Pyeongchang Paralympic Snowboard Cross and won bronze in the banked slalom.

The victory in the Lillehammer World Cup final was an emotional moment for Greater Hamar. His coach Mikko Wendelin died in 2019 and his teammate Bibian Mentel last year. He said he thought of both in the finish.

“And the fact that the family is at the screens at home and the three-month-old boy is watching. Although he probably didn’t understand anything about it yet, it was important to Dad that the boy was watching. It made me feel a little emotional. An attempt was made to sing the song Our Land, but a little piece came down my throat. When it comes to the lens, you know that this means a lot to me. ”

The Beijing Paralympics will be raced in March. Greater Hamar is scheduled to take part in one more World Cup competition before the Paralympics.