Mentel-Spee maintains World Cup dominance in Canada

Wins for Mentel-Spee, Shea and Dervaes at penultimate World Cup meet of the season. 26 Jan 2014

Bibian Mentel-Spee won another World Cup first place at Big White, Canada, on 26 January 2014.

ⒸBC Snowboard Association

By IPC

"The weather for today's race was absolutely gorgeous. I was really able to work on my google tan. Sometimes gorgeous weather also makes for slushy and bumpy snow conditions, but luckily that's just how I like it. "

The Netherlands' Bibian Mentel-Spee maintained her unbeaten run in this season's IPCAS Snowboard World Cup with victory on Saturday (25 January) at the Big White Ski Resort, Canada, whilst there were also wins for the US pair of Mike Shea and Marc Dervaes.

Multiple world champion Mentel-Spee (2:40.56) eased to victory finishing ahead of her rivals Heidi Jo Duce (3:05.51) and Amy Purdy (3:06.72) of the USA in the women's lower limb impairment class.

The men's lower limb impairment class saw athletes from the USA sweep the podium with Mike Shea leading the way, winning his third World Cup title of the season after victories in Landgraaf, the Netherlands, and Copper Mountain, USA.

Shea's two best runs gave him a time of 2:29.95, placing him well ahead of a closely contested second place between Keith Gabel (2:31.74) and Evan Strong (2:32.04).

"For the second time in history, Team USA had a successful sweep of the men's lower limb class," Shea told US Paralympics. "I couldn't be happier for our team.

"The weather for today's race was absolutely gorgeous. I was really able to work on my google tan. Sometimes gorgeous weather also makes for slushy and bumpy snow conditions, but luckily that's just how I like it. I owe a lot to our wax tech for nailing the recipe today," said Shea who has only lost one World Cup race this season, losing out to Evan Strong for a second title at Copper Mountain.

On a good day for Team USA, Marc Dervaes (2:45.34) was victorious in the men's upper limb snowboard, winning his second consecutive World Cup title after recording the three fastest times of the day.

Para-snowboarders will now have two weeks break before heading to La Molina, Spain, for the World Cup Finals on 10-12 February.

Men's and women's snowboard cross for athletes with a lower limb impairment will debut at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games on March 14 as a part of the alpine skiing programme.