Saturday, January 13 - Italy conquers two victories in the Opening of the Fis Carving Cup. The winners'names are Alessandra Merlin and Roberto Boselli.
 The intense snowing of the last 48 hours couldn't stop the opening venue of the Fis Carving Cup, that took place today morning on Folgarida's "Provetti". Italy had a good start as both the female and the male competitions were won by its atlets, Alessandra Merlin, Cup winner of the last season and Roberto Boselli from Sestola. After having cancelled the races scheduled for Saturday, today the two qualifying runs led directly to the final of the top 10 men and top 5 women. Mauro Robustelli, the official course setter, was not very happy about the snow conditions but set nonetheless an interesting track with 15 turns, each made of just 2 buoys, or even one to guarantee a regular race. Alessandra Merlin won before Melanie Buergener, her eternal rival, and Vanja Celigoj at her first podium. The other two finalists Ana Teuc (SLO) and Francesca Deambrogio (ITA) missed the last buoy and could not finish the run. Roberto Boselli on the other hand run a perfect final and at the finish line his advantage amounted to just 0,02 points. Second place for Marcel Stoessel, third for his younger brother René (both Stoeckli Carving Team - which won also the Team's ranking). Due to the victory of Boselli and the surprising 6th place of Matteo Vatua the second team's position went to the CTI-Columbia, beating last years champion Texcart. Gianluca Grigoletto in fact, couldn'd find his way to go along with the conditions and a big mistake pushed him to the 7th position. Thomas Bergamelli, though he signed the best points during the qualifying, at the end was only fourth. Great satisfaction for two young atletes at their debut: ninth place for the Italian Maurilio Alessi (Army) and 10th position for Miha Malus (Sk. Loka) from Slovenija.
The race will be broadcasted on SkySport3 on Tuesday at 20.30, on Wednesday at 17.30 and on Friday at 6am, and on SkySport2 on Thursday at 3.45 and 10.45.

Next appointment with the Fis Carving Cup at the Monte Bondone, January 19 and 20.
 



ROBERTO BOSELLI (CTI-COLUMBIA) winner of first race of the season '08