PRAGELATO
- THE SEVENTH VENUE
Regione Piemonte and “Top”: discovering Carving
28 february 2008. - This weekend (march 1/2)
the Fis Carving Cup will feel some of the Olympic Spirit
of Torino 2006, that still remains on the Ski Jumping
of Pragelato. The seventh race is planned on its outrun,
in the Stadium built for the Games. The FIS agreed to
homologate the steep track, allowing in such way the International
Fis Carving Comittee to realize its idea. The event is
supported by the Regione Piemonte, the “Top”, and the
Torino Olympic Park, which is administrating some of the
olympic facilities for cross country, biathlon, luge,
bob, the PalaVela at Torino and the Olympic Ski Jumping
at Pragelato. Surely this will be a quite particular race,
much shorter than usual, with about 10 turns, the first
of them with a single buoy following the narrowness of
the course in the first part. In a certain way it is a
return to the roots, when the track was made of 8 or 9
turns, before climbing to 20 during the last years. The
snow is packed with a ground of artificial snow and will
challenge the skills of the athletes during this show,
this sprint competition which may anticipate the decision
regarding the crystal cup, that will be assigned at Claviere
on march 15th/16th, after the race in Poland, at Zakopane,
on march 8th/9th. The red leader bib is always on the
shoulders of René Stössel, winnner of 3 races, followed
by Roberto Boselli (ITA) second on the Gravare Corte,
after Marco De Martin, gaining his first victory. Everything
remains possible also for the swiss Ivan Eggenberger and
the Italian Gianluca Grigoletto, who after some 4th and
5th places is only 145 pts away from Stössel. This could
be his kind of track, if his backache allows him to race
normally. Attention also to the other Italians Thomas
and Giancarlo Bergamelli, Maurilio Alessi (Army) and De
Martin, and to Hans Steiner (AUT), Miha Groselj and Gasper
Grgincic (SLO) and Michal Kolder and Michal Piela (POL),
with Gao Hosokawa from Japan always ready to enter the
first 10 positions. Interesting also the performances
of the local Teo Croce and Federico Caligaris. In the
women's ranking the victory of Melanie Bürgener (SUI)
has reopened the competition for the crystal cup. Alessandra
Merlin still has an advantage of 100 points and if she
will be able to remain concentrated also on the steepness
of the outrun there will be no space for the Swiss or
the slowenian Ana Teuc. On course also Sabrina Salvadori
and Federica Giangrande (TO), AOC Carving Team. The CTI-Columbia,
in the special team's ranking, is chasing the leading
Stöckli (11pts of advantage). In third position the Texcart,
last years cup winner, followed by the Slovenija Carving
Team and Navaski. The qualifying runs are scheduled for
saturday morning 11.00, and the Semifinal and Final will
be held on Sunday at 11.30. The race will be broadcasted
on SkySport3 on Tuesday at 20.30 and repeated various
times during the week.
Women's
Generel Ranking
1. Alessandra Merlin (ITA) punti 580; 2. Melanie Bürgener
(SUI) p. 480; 3. Ana Teuc (SLO) p. 360; 4. Vanja Celigoj
(SLO) p. 305; 5. Spela Turk (SLO) p. 203; 6. Jeanette
Arnold e Francesca Deambrogio (ITA) p. 171; 8. Marcella
Vantini (ITA); 9. Tina Vrhunc (SLO) p. 122 e 10. Magdalena
Soltys (POL) p. 77
Men's General Ranking 1. Renè Stössel
(SUI) punti 420; 2. Roberto Boselli (ITA) p. 400; 3. Ivan
Eggenberger (SUI) p. 374; 4. Gianluca Grigoletto (ITA)
p. 276; 5. Marco De Martin (ITA) p. 258; 6. Miha Malus
(SLO) p. 196; 7. Thomas Bergamelli (ITA) p. 170; 8. Matteo
Vatua (ITA) p. 169; 9. Bostjan Groselj (SLO) p. 153 e
10. Simon Bär (SUI) p. 149
Click on the pictures to enralge
