Paralympic champions dominate at IPC Alpine Skiing Europa Cup in Pitztal

Bugaev leads a clean sweep for Russia in the men’s standing, whilst Rothfuss, Schaffelhuber and Krako also picked up wins. 16 Dec 2014
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Alexey Bugaev, Russian Federation is so fast his speed moves the gates and takes the gold medal

After his success at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, Alexey Bugaev, Russian Federation is a One to Watch skier for the 2014-15 season

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By IPC

Paralympic gold medallists from March’s Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games dominated competition on the second day of the IPC Alpine Skiing Europa Cup in Pitztal, Austria, on Tuesday (16 December) winning four out of the six slalom races.

The men’s standing slalom saw a clean-sweep of the podium by Russian skiers.

Paralympic champion Alexey Bugaev (1:46.32) clocked the fastest times in both runs to take the win ahead of Alexander Alyabyev (1:48.77) and Alexander Vetrov (1:52.93).

Andrea Rothfuss (1:59.54), winner of the Sochi 2014 slalom, won the women’s standing slalom, to make it two wins out of two for the German having won Monday’s giant slalom.

The 25-year-old dominated the two slalom runs to finish ahead of the Netherlands’ Anna Jochemsen (2:07.43) and Russia’s Mariia Papulova (2:07.68) in second and third respectively.

After winning five gold medals in Sochi, Germany’s Anna Schaffelhuber (1:59.95) maintained her form, topping the podium for a second time in successive days. She beat the Netherlands’ Linda van Impelen (2:20.28) in to second place.

Great Britain’s Millie Knight (2:11.30) was the third skier to complete a Europa Cup double in Pitztal winning the women’s visually impaired. The 15-year-old and her guide Jen Kehoe easily beat South Korea’s Jae Rim Yang and guide Soo Young Lee (2:18.85) into second.

After a second place finish on Monday, Slovakia’s Jakub Krako (1:49.25) and his guide Martin Motyka came back to win the men’s visually impaired slalom. The 24-year-old, who won the men’s super-G in Sochi, clocked the fastest times in both runs to beat Russia’s Ivan Frantsev (1:50.93) and teammate Miroslav Haraus (1:52.00) into second and third respectively.

In the men’s sitting slalom, Germany’s Thomas Nolte (1:52.68) topped the podium. Austria’s Roman Rabl (1:56.07), winner of Monday’s giant slalom, had to settle for second place ahead of his teammate Dietmar Dorn (1:58.35) in third.

More than 70 athletes from 15 countries have begun their European para-alpine ski season with two days of competition in Pitztal, Austria. The next Europa cup races will take place in Kuehtai, Austria, from 19-21 December with slalom, giant slalom and super combined races.

The highlight of the 2014-15 season will be the 2015 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships in Panorama, Canada, which will attract more than 130 athletes from 30 countries for the biggest gathering of alpine skiers since Sochi 2014.