Thirty-three-year-old Kučerová secured her place in the play-off, which was originally supposed to take place already on Saturday, but was postponed to Sunday due to strong wind, by finishing 15th in Friday’s qualification.
In the quarterfinals, however, the Czech representative faced tough opponents – the current Olympic champion and defending champion Näslund and the reigning world vice-champion and owner of two Olympic bronze medals, Fanny Smith from Switzerland.
Kučerová only kept up with them for a while, then made a mistake on one of the jumps and reached the finish line third with a loss of 3.36 seconds to the fastest Näslund. She was 2.36 seconds behind the second Smith. German Johanna Holzmann finished fourth.
The other Czechs were absent in the elimination races. Diana Cholenská and Daniel Paulus did not advance from the qualification.
The unstoppable Näslund
Näslund took control of the World Championships for the third time in her career after 2017 and 2021, winning the final with a commanding lead of almost two seconds ahead of the Austrian Katrin Ofner, who at the age of 32 received her first medal from a major event. Third was Smith, who won her second world bronze after the gold in 2013 and three silvers.
Twenty-six-year-old Näslund confirmed her dominance in women’s ski cross. She followed up her recent World Cup triumph, in which she also went undefeated in a record 17 races in a row.
Among the men, the 22-year-old Deromedis won the title in the final over Florian Wilmsmann from Germany, third place from last year’s World Championship was defended by Erik Mobärg from Sweden.
Deromedis recorded a career-best result. In the SP, his highest so far was second place, at the Olympics in Beijing he took fifth place. At the world championships, he finished in 30th place in 2021, in 2019 he was 31st.
