World Cup Difficulty 2002, Yekaterinburg

Alexandre Chabot and Martina Cufar win the second stage of the World Cup Difficulty 2002 at Yekaterinburg

May 2002

No change to the leadership after Yekaterinburg. This is the verdict after the second stage of the World Cup Difficulty which took place in Russia this weekend and saw Alexandre Chabot, victorious in Bolzano two weeks ago, winning once again. The young Frenchman is laying serious foundations for the 2002 Trophy, to add to his 2001 title. Only Tomas Mrazek and Jerome Pouvreau pose a serious threat and today the two inverted the first-stage order: Mrazek placed second, ahead of Pouvreau third. Now joint second in the WC ranking, they trail 55 points behind unstoppable Chabot.

Cristian Brenna (ITA) placed an impressive fourth, after qualifying 8th for the final, ahead of Petit (FRA), Kazbekov (UKR), Douloub (RUS) and C. Bindhammer (GER), fifth to eighth respectively.

Martina Cufar from Slovenia took her first victory this year, ahead of Muriel Sarkany who keeps control of the leadership. Marietta Uhden climbed well in the final to gain third place, pushing aside Sandrine Levet who had topped out in the pervious rounds. Natalia Gros confirmed her talent by placing fifth, followed by Emilie Pouget (FRA), Damaris Knorr (GER) and Katrin Sedlmayer (GER).

	Results Men	Results Women
1.	Chabot Alexandre	Martina Cufar
2.	Mrazek Tomas	Muriel Sarkany
3.	Pouvreau Gerome	Marietta Uhden
4.	Brenna Cristian	Sandrine Levet
5.	Petit Francois	Natalia GrosÂ
6.	Kazbekov Serik	Emilie Pouget
7.	Douloub Yury	Damaris Knorr
8.	Bindhammer Christian	Katrin Sedlmayer