Matthias Lanzinger makes debut appearance at IPC’s Para-Alpine Skiing competition – Paralympics News
Para-Alpine Skiing is the season's Opener Race competition which is being held in Landgraaf, Netherlands. The event is organized by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and on Thursday the 17th of November Matthias Lanzinger
made a debut appearance.
Matthias Lanzinger was Austria’s former able-bodied European Cup winner but due to a skiing accident in 2008, he had to get his leg amputated and has only just returned to competitive skiing.
Moreover, he was faced with a tough competition but he still managed to finish third in the Men's Slalom Standing event which was 0.37 seconds behind his teammate, Markus Salcher, who took silver and 6.17 seconds behind Russia's
Alexandr Alyabyev who won gold.
In addition, Austria also pocketed the silver and bronze medal in the Men's Slalom Sitting event by Roman Rabl and Dietmar Dorn, respectively. They were piped at the post by Germany's Franz also known as the "the unbeatable" Hanfstingl.
Although, the race had the prospective to be an all-German affair , the disqualification of German Thomas Nolte, who was a podium favourite, missed a gate on the second run as Georg Kreiter took a fall on the third run, taking
him out of the race, they were unable to meet the mark.
Russia again dominated the Men's Slalom Visually Impaired event, with Valery Redkozubov and guide Viacheslav Molodtsov. They took gold over four seconds ahead of Austria's Christoph Prettner, who was guided by Andreas Heinz-Erian,
who has just started guiding this season.
In the Women’s Slalom Visually Impaired category Russia's Alexandra Frantseva with guide E Kolosovskaya won gold. Taking the second place was guide Fiona Gingell from Great Britain with athlete Jade Etherington who decided to race
in the B2 classification, after being classified this week as a B1 (it is an event in which skiers are required to wear blacked out goggles) athlete. Mean while, Pole Anna Kosinska won the bronze medal in the Women's Slalom Visually Impaired.
The day still ended on a high note for Austria as the Austrian media provided full coverage of the event which not only boosted the morale of the competitors but also encouraged the Austrian athletes.
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