| The fourth stage of the World Cup Difficulty 2001, held in Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur last weekend, was won by Alexandre Chabot and Muriel Sarkany. In doing so the young Frenchman secures overall victory in the World Cup, one stage ahead of schedule, while the Belgian will have to battle it out to a nail-biting finish in Kranj, Slovenia.
Chabot exploded onto the scene last season and has been unstoppable ever since. His 100 points earned in Malaysia are added to his 200 points earned in Chamonix and Lecco and the 65 points from his third place in Aprica, making a total of 365 and a (staggering) average of 91.25 points per competition. His closest opponent and compatriot Gérome Pouvreau needed to place second to keep victory hopes alive, but these were dashed by the German Christian Bindhammer. In the end Pouvreau , the current World Champion, placed an excellent third.
Maxim Petrenko placed fourth, ahead of Pablo Barbero, in his first ever final fifth, Cristian Brenna sixth, Julian Puigblanque seventh and Serik Kazbekov eighth.
Muriel Sarkany added yet another victory to her list (after Aprica earlier this season) but the overall title currently eludes her. Martina Cufar placed fourth and ensured that, mathematically at least, things are not over yet. Sandrine Levet , on excellent form this season, placed second, while Annatina Schultz from Switzerland placed third. Venera Tcherechneva placed fifth, Natalija Gros sixth, Bettina Schöpf seventh and Jenny Lavarda eighth.
The long journey to Kuala Lumpur proved to be a great success; the organisation in particular proved to be outstanding and both the semi-final and final aired on TV. When will this ever happen over here?
Results Men
| Results Women | | 1. Alexandre Chabot | Muriel Sarkany | | 2. Christian Bindhammer | Sandrine Levet | | 3. Gérome Pouvreau |
Annatina Schultz | | 4. Maxim Petrenko | Martina Cufar
| | 5. Pablo Barbero | Venera Tcherechneva | | 6. Cristian Brenna | Natalija Gros | | 7. Ramon Julian Puigblanque | Bettina Schoepf |
| 8. Serik Kazbekov | Jenny Lavarda
| | 9. Evgueni Ovtchinnikov | Ingela Nilsson
| | 10. François Petit | Irina Rouig |
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