site.btaSnowboarder Malena Zamfirova Narrowly Defeated in Parallel Giant Slalom Round of 16

Malena Zamfirova was knocked out in dramatic fashion in Sunday's round of 16 of the women's parallel giant slalom in Alpine snowboarding at the Milano Cortina Olympics.

The 16-year-old, who set the tenth-fastest time in the qualification run earlier in the day, lost by only 0.02 seconds to Ramona Theresia Hofmeister (Germany) in the first round of the direct eliminations.

Hofmeister, a four-time winner of the World Cup in the parallel disciplines and a bronze medallist at the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympics, had the advantage of choosing the course and opted for the faster blue one. The clash began evenly, after which Zamfirova opened one of her turns a little too much in the middle of the run, allowing the German to pull ahead. The young Bulgarian caught up and in the final metres the two were side by side, but in the end Hofmeister triumphed by the smallest of margins.

The defending champion from Pyeongchang 2018 and Beijing 2022, Ester Ledecka (Czechia), continued her dominant performance with a convincing win over Claudia Riegler (Austria), finishing 1.13 seconds ahead.