The race for the Parallel World Cup title of the LG Snowboard FIS World Cup enters its eighth out of ten rounds. On March 5th, Moscow will host the fifth and thus last parallel slalom of the 2010/2011 season. The sole stop of the world wide contest tour on Russian soil will take place on the Vorobyovy Gory venue, right in the heart of the capital. The world’s best race boarders will first meet for the qualifiers before finding out in night finals of the top 16 men and women who is the fastest rider out there.
Top aspirants for victory are once again the current World Cup leaders Ekaterina Tudegesheva (RUS) and Benjamin Karl (AUT). While the 23-years-old Russian from Tashtagol aims for her career’s eighth win, her season’s fifth, Karl, the 2010 Olympic parallel giant slalom runner-up is not only ready to extend his 2011 winning streak but to also clinch a new milestone of his outstanding snowboard career.
If the this year so far unbeaten Austrian would also be the number one in Moscow, Karl would be the only one to hold another sweet record as until now, no alpine snowboarder has been able to bring home six wins (World Cup and World Championship races) in a row. The 25-years-old, who had triumphed in Bad Gastein (AUT), twice at the World Championships in La Molina (ESP) as well as in Yongpyong (KOR) and Stoneham (CAN), currently sits on a tied streak record of five consecutive wins. At the end of the 2005 season, Philipp Schoch had been able to pull off this feat, too.
Despite the 2011 Double World Champions’ dominance this winter, the men’s Parallel World Cup standings are still exciting as there are three riders following Karl (4,760 points), who are only separated by the margin of 430 points. Austria’s Andreas Prommegger sits in second (3,700) with South Tyrolean’s Roland Fischnaller (3,400) and Aaron March (3,270) being on his tail.
On the women’s side, Tudegesheva leads the pack with 4,890 points. Switzerland’s runner-up Fraenzi Maegert-Kohli is her main rival with 3,910 so far cumulated points. An Austrian trio consisting of Marion Kreiner (3,240), Claudia Riegler (2,920) and Doris Guenther (2,400) rounds out the top-5.
Time schedule parallel slalom Moscow, Russia:
Saturday, March 5th, parallel slalom:
- Qualifiers 2:30 PM local time
- Finals 6:30 PM local time
