May 20, 2013

Skiing: Pinturault, Mancuso dominate parallel World Cup slalom

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France’s Alexis Pinturault cleares the gate during a men’s World Cup parallel slalom event in Moscow on Tuesday. (Sergey Ponomarev/)

(PhatzRadio / ) — Alexis Pinturault of France and American Julia Mancuso dominated parallel races on a giant ramp in Moscow on Tuesday — the only city event on the Alpine circuit this season.

Pinturault edged of Germany by 0.17 seconds in the second run of the final to claim his first Cup title.

of Sweden beat Romed of Austria in the small final for third.

“It’s a very special victory for me,” Pinturault said. “I’m very proud I’ve done so well here. The event is really very special and differs much from other [Alpine] disciplines. You have to be really very quick at the start and very aggressive.”

Mancuso dominated Michaela of Austria in both runs in the final. Overall World Cup leader Lindsey , who lost to her American teammate in the semifinals, finished third.

“The biggest thing for me in winning here is that you can never count yourself out,” said Mancuso, who was 0.16 seconds behind of Austria in the first quarter-final run but rallied in the second to stay in the competition. “I didn’t really think I could win, so it’s a very good example that just if you try hard enough you can do it.”

The top 16 men and women in the World Cup standings competed in the event on a 50-metre high, 37-metre wide and 172-metre long ramp with 18 gates, constructed on a square at the Luzhniki sports complex.

A city event scheduled for Munich, Germany, earlier this season was cancelled because of .

Vonn dominated the first two rounds but hit the gates and then missed the next one in the first run against Mancuso. She started 0.50 seconds behind in the second run and tried her best but was still 0.31 seconds behind at the finish.

“I really tried to get on the podium today,” Vonn said. “And it was cool, it was a really fun event.”

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