Austria regains medal leadboard after fourth competition day of 2013 IPC Alpine World Championships

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Yesterday, following the Super Combined event at the 2013 IPC Alpine World Championships, Austria took the lead again in the medal count having earned six total gold medals across four days of competition. France is tied with Austria in the overall medal count.

Austria’s medal tally yesterday included a gold by LW11 classified Claudia Loesch in the women’s sitting event, a gold by LW4 classified Matthias Lanzinger in the men’s standing event, and a bronze by LW11 classified Philipp Bonadimann in the men’s sitting event.

Following her gold medal winning, Loesch told the media she was super happy she won, and she had a really good slalom run. She went on to say she usually finishes in second and this was a surprise for her.

France’s medal count increased with a gold by LW6/8-2 Marie Bochet in the women’s standing, and a bronze by LW4 classified Cedric Amafroi-Broisat in the men’s standing.

Spain’s vision impaired skier Jon Santacana, who won Spain’s only two medals in the competition, failed to finish his second run in the Super Combined. Following the race, he was visibly upset. He had finished the first run in first place by a tenth of a second ahead of eventual gold medalist Chris Williamson and guide Robin Femy of Canada. Williamson hugged silver medalist Miroslav Haraus of Slovakia, and Santacana when Santacana and guide Miguel Galindo Garcés returned to the finishing area after Santacana’s fall. Spain’s other entrant in the men’s visually impaired Super Combined event, Gabriel Gorce and guide Arnau Ferrer, finished three thousandths of a second out of medal contention with a combined run time of 1:47.93. The bronze medalist, Ivan Frantseva and guide German Agranovskii? of Russia, had a combined run time of 1:47.90.

At the finish of each competitor’s second run, most are requested to go to doping control to insure they are not taking any banned substance. The 2013 IPC Alpine World Championships are scheduled to continue today.