More Than 110,000 Spectators Cheer Austria's Marco Dallago on to 2014 Red Bull Crashed Ice Victory

QUEBEC CITY, QC--(Marketwired - March 23, 2014) - The 2014 Red Bull Crashed Ice season came to a thrilling close tonight as the untouchable Marco Dallago (AUT) was crowned the Ice Cross Downhill World Champion, beating out season-long rival, Cameron Naasz (USA) and Canadian favourite, Scott Croxall. This season has been anything but ordinary as Dallago and Naasz dominated most of the circuit stops, with a five-man fight for second and third place in the Quebec City World Finals. Winning both tonight's final race and the World Championship overall rankings, Marco Dallago secured his dominance in Ice Cross Downhill this season.

"As soon as I finished the first jump of the final race, I knew I had gotten a good start and the championship was in clear view," said Dallago, who joined the sport in 2012. "This group of competitors keeps getting better and it feels great to win against such strong competition."

A roaring crowd of more than 110,000 spectators came out in full force for tonight's Red Bull Crashed Ice event, which saw 64 Ice Cross Downhill athletes battle down a 480-metre urban ice track that swerved through the streets of Quebec City, with a daunting 40-m vertical and a never before seen 3-m ice gap. Tonight's races featured 29 Canadians, seven Quebecers racing on their own home turf, and five sets of brothers - the Moriaritys, Wittys, Bergesons, Croxalls and Dallagos.

Canadian Favourite Shakes Up Standings at Season Finale

Canadian hockey-lovers are typically among the strongest athletes of the Ice Cross Downhill sport and yet, this season truly challenged Canadian heroes and previous champions, Kyle and Scott Croxall. Scott Croxall delivered the biggest upset of the season tonight, edging high-performing opponents off of the podium to claim the second place overall ranking for himself.

"I need to continue this streak next season" Scott said tonight, "I'm definitely glad to be on the podium again and tonight's race and my place in the standings makes me more eager than ever to continue training."

New Female Champion Crowned

This season welcomed a new group of 28 female athletes from four different countries, each hungry to climb the Ice Cross Downhill World Championship podium. Jacqueline Legere of Paris, ON, was at the top of the female standings throughout the competition but fell short in the final race, finishing second overall. With past female World Champions absent from the race, it was Salla Kyhälä of Finland who clinched the top spot for the first time, to be crowned the 2014 Female Ice Cross Downhill World Champion.

Quebec City's World Championship stop consistently features the only women's race on the international circuit. During the Registration phase of the 2014 season, a surge of hundreds of amateur female Canadian athletes registered to compete, proving the sport's undeniable popularity and resonance with all Canadian daredevils.

New Ice Track, New Icy Location

Quebec City's Red Bull Crashed Ice event is often deemed the most iconic stop of the World Championship circuit; this year's course not only moved locations within the city, but also challenged the hundreds of track workers and engineers to build a brand new urban ice track in a location that it hadn't landed on since 2006. It was the longest track of the series, starting at the Tourny Fountain in front of the Parliament building, stretching through the fortifications of the city and ending at Place D'Youville, offering sights of the Capitole, Saint-Jean Gate and the Palais Montcalm.

Thousands Of Canadians Vie To Compete In 2014

This year, more than 4,500 Canadians registered for the chance to compete at one of 12 Red Bull Crashed Ice Qualifier events across Canada. During the month of February, a lottery selected 200 men and 20 women per qualifying city to tackle individual speed trials on a challenging flat-surface obstacle course filled with jumps, dives, and turns. The top 100 Canadian men and 24 Canadian women from all Qualifiers across the country earned spots in the season finale in Quebec City.

This Year: The first-ever Rookie Track

For the first time, Vidéotron Mobile and Kijiji invited rookie daredevils to try the Red Bull Crashed Ice 'Rookie Track', an Ice Cross Downhill track targeted for amateur athletes. Adding a true festival-element to the season finale of Ice Cross Downhill World Championship, it was open to the public throughout the event. Measuring 95 meters long and open until March 23 (at 3:00pm EST), hundreds of local fans have already come out for a chance to taste the Red Bull Crashed Ice action themselves, alongside the event's Ice Cross Downhill athletes who opted to use it as a training track.

World Championship Results

1. Marco Dallago (AUT), 2. Scott Croxall (CAN), 3. Cameron Naasz (USA), 4. Luca Dallago (AUT), 5. Fabian Mels (GER), 6. Reed Whiting (USA), 7. Pacôme Schmitt (FRA), 8. Dean Moriarity (CAN), 9. Kyle Croxall (CAN), 10. Kilian Braun (SUI). Women's race: 1. Salla Kyhälä (FIN) 2. Jacqueline Legere (CAN) 3. Alicia Blomberg (CAN) 4. Tamara Kajah (CAN).

About Red Bull Crashed Ice

A combination of hockey, boardercross, and downhill skiing, Red Bull Crashed Ice sets a thrilling stage for intrepid male and female athletes from around the globe. This 2014 season featured four world championship races, in Helsinki, Saint Paul, Moscow and Quebec City. World Champions are crowed through the points they rack up at each stop; points are up for grabs at every international stop and the 'Ice Cross Downhill World Champion' is the competitor who has accumulated the most points over the course of the season.

Since the first race in 2001 in Stockholm, Red Bull Crashed Ice has touched down in over 10 countries around the world and the sport's popularity continues to explode. The competition reached new heights in 2013, drawing over 300,000 spectators internationally over the course of five World Championship races last year alone.

Red Bull Crashed Ice Newsroom

The Red Bull Crashed Ice Newsroom (redbullcrashedicenewsroom.com) allows media partners to view, retrieve, display, and share hi-res photos, recordings and moving images of every Red Bull Crashed Ice stop, completely free of charge.

For more news and content including media accreditation, please visit the newsroom at www.redbullcrashedicenewsroom.com. Throughout every Red Bull Crashed Ice event, results are also posted in real-time to www.redbullcrashedice.com/results.

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