Frantsev, Salcher, Han go three-for-three at Europa Cup

Russia’s Ivan Frantsev, Austria’s Markus Salcher and South Korea’s Sang Min Han all saw off changing weather conditions to complete a 100 per cent record at the IPC Alpine Skiing Europa Cup in Stara Planina, Serbia, on Friday (5 February).

The day began with a second downhill race rescheduled from Thursday (4 February) and was followed by super-G, replacing the super combined originally due to take place on Friday.

Paralympic champion Salcher crossed the finish line in the men’s downhill standing in 1:01.38.

He finished ahead of second-placed Russian Alexander Vetrov (1:04.04) and world champion Aleksei Bugaev (1:05.31). The win was Salcher’s second consecutive downhill victory in Stara Planina after winning on Wednesday (3 February).

Just a few hours later Salcher (59.11) was back on top of the podium in super-G. Once again he was followed by Vetrov (1:02.86) in second and Bugaev (1:88) in third.

Han also won both his men’s sitting races on Friday after his victory two days ago.

Han (1:12.38) led teammate Chi Won Lee (1:12.44) onto the downhill podium in second. The Czech Republic’s Pavel Bambousek (1:17.73) was third.

The same results were replicated in the super-G as Han (1:11.34) skied to first ahead of Lee (1:11.83) and Bambousek (1:14.05) in second and third respectively.

Frantsev, with guide German Agranovskii, led the downhill and super-G men’s visually impaired.

He finished the downhill in 1:08.49 and super-G in 1:04.96.

The next IPC Alpine Skiing Europa Cup gets underway in Espot, Spain, on Monday (8 February) featuring super combined, slalom and giant slalom.