From Lillehammer, NOR
(January 15, 2025) – Guillermo Castillo slid to gold in the third race of the 2024/2025 Para Sport World Cup in Lillehammer, and came from behind to do so.
Castillo trailed Race 1 winner Corie Mapp after the first heat, trailing by .17. Latvia’s Arturs Klots was third, .21 back. Behind them, Flavio Menardi was fourth, with a four-way tie for fifth between Jonas Frei, Robert Balk, Michael Stevens, and David Jennewein all stacked up behind the Italian.
Austria’s Hermann Ellmauer slid to sixth from tenth place in the first heat as he picked off Christopher Stewart, Stevens and Jennewein. While both Frei and Balk slid ahead of the Austrian, Mendardi fell back to ninth after a bumpy second run dropped him down the order.
Frei edged out Balk for the lead with the top three to go but Klots, an 11-time winner on the World Cup tour, out-slid Frei by .09. Klots’ lead lasted roughly two minutes, until Castillo put down the quick time of the heat to move to the lead with only Mapp to go.
Mapp, winner of the season opening race, made a small mistake early, but rallied. But the Brit ran out of track, and crossed the finish line in third place, a hundredth behind Klots and .12 behind Castillo, who took gold.
The win for Castillo was the fourth of his career. For Klots, his silver was the 17th medal of his World Cup career but only second medal in Lillehammer.
Mapp’s bronze was his 40th between World Cup and World Championships.
Frei was fourth, Balk fifth, and Ellmauer sixth.
The United States placed Austin Parker in 13th, Dan Rizzieri in 15th, and Gabi Cha in 16th in Cha’s first World Cup start.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Guillermo Castillo | USA | 16 | 6.10 | 6.13 | 56.05 | 56.47 | 1:52.52 |
| 2 | Arturs Klots | LAT | 2 | 6.08 | 6.14 | 56.09 | 56.54 | 1:52.63 |
| 3 | Corie Mapp | GBR | 3 | 6.10 | 6.16 | 55.88 | 56.76 | 1:52.64 |
| 4 | Jonas Frei | SUI | 10 | 6.10 | 6.12 | 56.17 | 56.55 | 1:52.72 |
| 5 | Robert Balk | USA | 6 | 6.11 | 6.16 | 56.17 | 56.67 | 1:52.84 |
| 6 | Hermann Ellmauer | AUT | 5 | 6.11 | 6.16 | 56.31 | 56.60 | 1:52.91 |
| 7 | Michael Stevens | RSA | 1 | 6.12 | 6.18 | 56.17 | 56.79 | 1:52.96 |
| 8 | David Jennewein | ITA | 15 | 6.11 | 6.14 | 56.17 | 56.83 | 1:53.00 |
| 9 | Flavio Menardi | ITA | 4 | 6.10 | 6.18 | 56.15 | 56.90 | 1:53.05 |
| 10 | Christopher Stewart | SUI | 9 | 6.10 | 6.13 | 56.19 | 56.97 | 1:53.16 |
| 11 | Israel Blanco | ESP | 8 | 6.11 | 6.16 | 56.53 | 56.92 | 1:53.45 |
| 12 | Ziva Lavrinc | SLO | 13 | 6.12 | 6.15 | 56.69 | 56.93 | 1:53.62 |
| 13 | Austin Parker | USA | 14 | 6.10 | 6.12 | 56.85 | 57.03 | 1:53.88 |
| 14 | Gabriela Knapova | CZE | 17 | 6.05 | 6.07 | 57.24 | 56.84 | 1:54.08 |
| 15 | Gabi Cha | USA | 7 | 6.06 | 65.09 | 57.60 | 57.32 | 1:54.92 |
| 16 | Kristjan Peljhan | SLO | 11 | 6.11 | 6.11 | 56.99 | 62.14 | 1:59.13 |