Giant Slalom and Nordic combined in Yabuli

Mizue Hoshi, from Japan, running for the gold medal in the Women’s Giant Slalom

The Alpine skiing competition continued today in Yabuli with the Women’s Giant Slalom. The conditions were almost perfect for this race with good visibility some light snowfall on a superb and well prepared slope. The first run went to Anne-Sophie Barthet from France followed by Chika Kato (JPN) and the Polish skier Katarzina Karasinska from Poland who was one of the big stars of the alpine skiing events during the 2007 Torino Universiade.

As the time difference between the ten first was so small, the second run was very open. Indeed the positions changed during the second run. Anne Sophie made a few mistakes which cost her the first place and the gold medal. Chika Kato who finished fourth after the first run was simply the best on the second. She gained the gold without any doubt. Anne Sophie finished second (and was very disappointed) and Katarzina took the third place.

The Japanese Team was the strongest today on the Nordic Combined event. This time, with the mass start, the K90 just followed the cross country event. Sato Koichiro and Nagai Takehiro signed the Japanese double thanks to their superb jumps. Indeed, they were not well ranked after the cross country. But on the K90 they were amongst the best, especially Sato who was ranked 1 and 2 for his two jumps. He took the gold followed by his teammate. The Czech Petr Kutal finished third.

The freestyle competition ended today with the mixed aerials team event. FIS (International Ski Federation) was very pleased to see this team aerials event scheduled, because this was a first – not just for FISU but for FIS as well! The teams consisted of three skiers (2 men and 1 woman). It became a mixed event because the number of teams who signed up for the competition was relatively small. Indeed, with only three teams registered, we had only 9 skiers on the hills. Anyway, the show was superb with once again the Chinese team on the top. The World Number one, Li Nina and her teammates were in a class of their own. They didn’t give a chance to the two other teams and took the gold in front of the crowd. Belarus finished second and Russia third.