13th FAI World Para Ski Championships, Gosau, Austria - 3rd March 2011

16.00 hrs and the competition is over - the final round has been jumped, protest time has passed and all the results have been checked and signed off by the Jury.

Our new World Champions are:

Male  Aleksey Burenin, Russia with a total of 29 points.

Female:  Irena Avbelj, Slovenia with a total of 31 points.

Team:  Slovenia Elan with a total of 157 points.

CONGRATULATIONS  to all the medal winners, and the competitors and judges for an excellent competition.

Today gave us perfect conditions, with only one re-jump due to a pad malfunction, it was a real contrast to the previous two days.

The mother and daughter story continued to the last jump, when Erica scored 3 cms and secured a silver medal and Christina scored 8 cms with her final jump, which placed her in 4th place.

As to our South African novice, Erik Vliegenthart, he finished in 54th place, ahead of his mentor Tim Mace, with a total score of 263 points, declaring he had had the most fun ever at this competition.

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Another lovely start to the day, and at least the wind conditions this morning are good.  We were left with some interesting results following yesterday evenings difficult conditions.  Let us hope today proves less challenging.

At the end of three rounds in the Female event, overall, we have mother and daughter in 2nd and 3rd place.  When I said to Erica Franz she must be very proud of her daughter, Christina answered, and I am very proud of my mother!

The fith round was almost completed by mid-day and so we continued into the sixth round.   The results to end of Round 5 are being posted as I write.  The plan is to continue with the Final Round once the 6th is completed.  At the end of the 5th round Slovenia Elan is leading with Russia 1 in second place and Austria Red in third.

By 2.00 round 6 was completed and we are awaiting the results for the Final.