site.btaThree Bulgarians Among Top 10 Riders at Bansko Snowboard Alpine World Cup
Bulgaria's snowboarders Tervel Zamfirov, Radoslav Yankov and Malena Zamfirova finished among the top 10 in the parallel giant slalom at the Visa FIS Snowboard World Cup in Bansko on Saturday.
In the women’s parallel giant slalom, 16-year-old Malena Zamfirova finished fourth, drawing the strongest emotional response from viewers. She opened with a convincing victory over China's Gong Naiying, followed by a quarterfinal win against Canadian Aurelie Moisan.
In the semifinals, a track rut prevented Zamfirova from defeating Germany's Ramona Theresia Hofmeister. Zamfirova fell early in the small final against the World Cup titleholder, Japan's Miki Tsubaki, leaving her in fourth.
Hofmeister took the win for the second year in a row, as she had done in both Bansko events last season.
Bulgaria's top snowboarders Tervel Zamfirov and Radoslav Yankov finished fifth and tenth in the men's parallel giant slalom. They were both eliminated by Swiss rider Gian Casanova.
The round-of-16 matches began with Yankov losing to Casanova by just 0.07 seconds. Zamfirov then defeated Slovenian veteran Zan Kosir, delighting the home crowd.
In the quarterfinals, Casanova narrowly defeated Zamfirov, denying him a chance to match his best previous Bansko result of fourth place from last year.
Austrian Benjamin Karl claimed victory in the big final, defeating Canadian Arnaud Gaudet, who had topped the qualification. For the Olympic champion Karl, this marks his 28th World Cup win. Casanova took third place after beating Germany's Yannick Angenend in the small final.
Alexander Krashniak, who finished second in Bad Gastein on January 13, could have joined Zamfirov and Yankov in Saturday's finals, but he fall in the second qualifying run.
The other Bulgarian competitors were eliminated in the first of the two qualifying phases, but will have the chance to perform better on Sunday.
/DD/
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