World Cup Difficulty, Yekaterinburg, results

Alexandre Chabot and Chloè Minoret win the second stage of the World Cup Difficulty 2003 in Yekaterinburg, Russia

June 2003

The second stage of the World Cup Difficulty 2003 took place in Yekaterinburg, Russia last weekend and was won, to no surprise, by the French dominator Alexandre Chabot. The women's event saw a slight change in leadership with the current European Champion ChloÃ¨ Minoret taking first place. Like last year, Muriel Sarkany's title race seems to be less linear than Chabot's, and the Belgian placed fourth, behind Emilie Pouget and Olga Bibik.

TomÃ¡s MrÃ¡zek, after his hiccough in Imst, where he placed 26th, set the record straight, topping out in the Semi-Final together with Chabot and Ramon Julian Puigblaque, to then place second, ahead of Gerome Pouvreau, current World Champion.

Ovtchinnikov, capable of striking when least expected, placed fourth, beating Brenna, Crespi, Puigblaque and Douloub in the Final which saw these five athletes separated, similar to Imst by... one hold. The final results were without a doubt in line with the athletes' abilities, but it just goes to show how important the route setting has become.

The World Cup now moves on to Lecco on 28/29 June.

Results men Yekaterinburg
1	CHABOT	Alexandre	FRA
2	MRAZEK	Tomas	CZE
3	POUVREAU	Gerome	FRA
4	OVTCHINNIKOV	Evgueni	RUS
5	BRENNA	Cristian	ITA
6	CRESPI	Flavio	ITA
7	JULIANÂ PUIGBLAQUE	Ramon	ESP
8	DOULOUB	Iouri	RUS
9	AUCLAIR	Francois	FRA
10	KRIVOSHEITSEV	Evgeniy	UKR
11	MARIN GARCIA	Eduard	ESP
12	CHARAFOUTDINOV	Denis	RUS
13	ZEMSKI	Alexei	RUS
13	PEKAREV	Mikhail	RUS
13	LEGRAND	Francois	FRA
16	MILLET	Sylvain	FRA

Results Women Yekaterinburg
1	MINORET	Chloe	FRA
2	POUGET	Emilie	FRA
3	BIBIK	Olga	RUS
4	SARKANY	Muriel	BEL
5	YAKOVLEVA	Olga	RUS
6	TCHERECHNEVA	Venera	RUS
7	RAFFETSEDER	Gerda	AUT
8	OSTAPENKO	Olena	UKR
9	LAVARDA	Jenny	ITA
10	VIDMAR	Maja	SLO
11	NILSSON	Ingela	SWE
12	RYMCHA	Natalia	RUS
13	BALAKIREVA	Alexandra	RUS
14	MALAMID	Evguenia	RUS
15	ROYIGA	Tatiana	RUS
16	PODGORBOUNSKIKH	Zosia	RUS
17	KOROLKOVA	Ekaterina	RUS
18	STENDAL	Linn Karin	NOR
19	RYZHKOVA	Margarita	RUS