Felix Neureuther of Germany won a parallel slalom on a giant ramp built near Red Square in a promotion of Alpine ski events at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics on Friday.
Neureuther was among 14 world-class slalom skiers along with two Russian champions invited to compete in the exhibition by the International Ski Federation (FIS).
The ramp — 55m high, 33m wide and 150m long with 14 gates — was erected on a square in front of Moscow University’s main building at Vorobyevy Hills. Because Moscow has been warmer than average, more snow for the event was delivered from Siberia, more than 3,500km away.
PHOTO: AP
The event was shown live by two dozen broadcasters in Europe and the skiers toured the Kremlin and met Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who noted the event’s importance in promoting skiing in Russia ahead of the 2014 Games.
World Cup overall champion Bode Miller of the US, who was third in the event, was impressed with the ramp.
“The idea is strong. We talked about it for a long time,” Miller said. “The ramp is giant. It’s hard to believe how much effort and time it takes to build something like that. That’s the main problem, but I think it’s really cool to see it actually happen and come to reality.”
A smaller ramp was built for a snowboard and freestyle World Cup last February, which gave FIS the idea of holding an Alpine race in the city. The new ramp will host another freestyle and snowboard World Cup next month.
Marloon Herrera was crying — happy tears. With Cuba trailing in the fifth inning of its Little League World Series (LLWS) opener on Thursday, Herrera lined a two-run double to give his team the lead. When the Czech Republic, representing Europe-Africa, made a pitching change, he ran over to give his third base coach a hug. Cuba went on to win 4-1. It was the first game at this year’s tournament for both sides, but it was also the beginning of Cuba’s second appearance in the series ever — and it was emotional. “You breathe baseball in Cuba,” manager Everaldo Machado said on
Taiwan on Friday beat Australia 11-0 at the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Taiwan are represented at the tournament by Taoyuan’s Gueishan Elementary School, who won the Asia-Pacific regional tournament to earn the trip to the US. Australia are represented by the Hills Red team from Sydney. Taiwan advanced to a game tomorrow against Santa Clara, representing Cuba, who won 4-1 against the Czech Republic’s Brno, the Europe-Africa regional qualifiers. Australian starter Sayre Howick had a tough time controlling his pitches at Volunteer Stadium, one of which allowed Taiwan to open their account. They scored six in the inning and
World Boxing, an international amateur boxing organization formed last year after a breakdown in relations between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Boxing Association (IBA), has announced the admission of Taiwan, along with four other nations, into its growing list of members. In a statement released on its Web site on Friday, the Swiss- based organization said that in addition to Taiwan, admitted as Chinese Taipei, Bhutan, Ecuador, Fiji and Pakistan have also become members. The new members all have well-rounded national and international boxing programs as well as transparency in the leadership and management of their national boxing programs,
COOLED DOWN: Du Plessis apologized after the fight for comments about his Nigerian-born opponent, after Adesanya said he planned to take the belt back to Africa South African Dricus du Plessis yesterday took a flurry of body hits across four rounds before defeating Israel Adesanya by submission to retain his middleweight championship at UFC 305. After scoring some early takedowns, Du Plessis (22-2) had to withstand a flurry of body strikes from Adesanya through the middle rounds, which appeared to be taking a toll on the 30-year-old South African as the fight progressed. However, a left hook followed by three rights helped bring Adesanya down, giving Du Plessis the opening he wanted as he swiftly got the choke hold that forced the Nigerian-born New Zealander to tap out