Snowboard and Biathlon in Maoershan

Snowboard
The first finals took place today in Maoershan. Snow showers have taken the place of the yesterday’s sunshine which illuminated this outstanding venue.

The snow did not look to border at all the very promising young French snowboarder girl Claire Chapotot, 18 years old, who has beaten the Czech Klara Koukalova after an exciting neck to neck race: “I really appreciate this kind of tough race. It is exciting. It was a nice slope. I would compare it to Europe Cup standards. World Cup slopes are more difficult: longer, more technical and with bigger jumps. After my three wins in the Europe Cup races in January, this victory is another step to bigger international achievements.” Raffeala Brutto, the 22 years Italian was also very happy with her bronze medal.

The best time of yesterday’s qualifications, the Polish Mateusz Ligocki could not go to the semi-finals. But he was well replaced by his country fellowman, Marcin Bocian. The incredible joy of the small Polish community upon the arrival made the public think Bocian was the winner of the event. But he got only silver, just behind the Austrian Andreas Lausegger, who won quite easily and whose quietness contrasted with the exuberant behaviour of his Polish contender. The Swiss Clemens Bolli finished third.

Biathlon
The biathlon 20km men and 15 km women were disputed under difficult weather conditions: snow and a 6-7 m/sec wind made the shooting of the biathletes a very difficult art. The 26-year old Russian Artem Gusev illustrated it perfectly: he was the fastest skier but even 5 penalties did not prevent him to win the gold. The Russian best achievements before Universiade victory were three European titles: one in sprint and two in relay. The only one to have good shooting results was the French Remy Borgeot with one penalty that allows him to take the silver medal just in front of Serhly Semenov, third with 6 penalties.

Anna Kunaeva was a little bit more precise than the men with her 3 penalties wins that allows her to gain her most important international win of her career. Three penalties: this was the final shooting result of her country fellow woman, Nadezha Chastina, former junior world champion in 2002. The two times junior world champion in relay, the young 21-year old Franziska Hildebrand was the most precise female participant of today’s event. Bronze was her precious gift for this performance.

Tomorrow, there will be no finals and place will be left for training and some rest.