Wednesday 14 february 2007 , Abetone (PT) THIRD APPOINTMENT ON THE COPPI Saturday and Sunday 6th and 7th of March on the snows of Abetone, the sixth stage of World Championship of Carving will take place. It will be a very important appointment for the general ranking because, regarding the men category, Thomas Bergamelli (Colmar) from Bergamo has the possibility to gain the cup two competitions before the ending of the championship. After the appointment of the European Championship disputed the 20th and 21st February in Zacopane (POL), the italian champion extended his advantage on the brother to 194 points. For the 2nd place instead the fight is still open between Marco De Martin 581 and Gianluca Grigoletto 573 points. No chance for a foreigner to win the Cup, but for sure for the stage victory there are possibilities, with the swiss René and Marcel Stössel, Ivan Eggenberger and Simon Bär, the slovanians Miha and Bostjan Groselj and Dejan Mrak, the austrians Hans Steiner and Florian Gruber. The young polish Wojciech Szcepanik can be a big surprise, as he is the European champion under 21. The struggle in ladies field is still open, with Martina Giunti, 21 years of Sesto Fiorentino, topathlet of the Texcart Team with 850 points. 95 more than the swiss Melanie Bürgener. Stefania Burba (Colmar) with 710 has little chance to enter this position and she has also to defend her third place from her teammate Giorgia Bortolotti with 575 points. The slovanian and polish however will not stay there whitout fighting because Spela Turk (SLO) and Katarzyna Sek (POL) entered in their best conditionsin the final part of the Cup. For the teams the challenge will be between the Colmar Carving Team and the Texcart. Farer away Stöckli & RTC, which would be able to get back the leadership with 2 victories. The program of the weekend will be the following: Speed carving on saturday and the slalom on sunday, both on the slope “Coppi del Pilicchio”. The international jury will take a definitive decision only tomorrow morning, when it will be possible to have exacer ideas about the weather conditions. Saturday a beautiful sunny day is expected, while sunday the sky should be clowdy. The two competitions will start at 10.30amwith the 2 qualifiying runs. And after the big final with 5 ladies and 10 men. The Speed expects maximum 25 turns represented by an individual buoy. The Slalom, instead, traditional competition, has 3 buoys for each turn: the outside one (red) gives 5 points, the middle one (yellow) gives 4 of it and the one inside (blue) only 3. The result of competition is given from the time divided the sum of the points gained in the buoys. Therefore it is an extremely tactical competition, since the athlet has to decide if to cut for the blue with less points and a low time or to gain ore points in the buoys with a relevant higher time. After the final runs of the World cup also the Italian Cup will take place. The categories are 3 : children , juniores and seniores (the inscriptions are open until Friday 5pm , send it to: info@carvingcup.com). The Fis Carving Cup is not only a competitive appointment, because also in Abetone the Renault Koleos Skitour with his promotional village will be there (at the departure of the lift Pulicchio). For all the people there will be the possibility to make a test drive with the Renault Koleos and to participate on many activities of the village with the animation and the music of R101. The speaker will be Dario Desi. The village is open from 9.30 am until 4pm of Saturday and Sunday. Saturday at 6 pm at Piazza Piramidi there will be the party with tjhe happy Carving Show of R101: eno-gastronomic tastes, gifts and games for all.