Aleksandra Frantceva, Alexey Bugaev take lead in super-combined

“It was very difficult, especially with the weather conditions. But they did a good job getting the track ready. It didn’t really affect my race, we ski in all kinds of conditions. I’m ready for anything.”

The rain and fog at the Rosa Khutor Alpine Centre let up long enough to get off the slalom portion of the men’s and women’s super-combined on Tuesday (11 March) at the Sochi 2014 Winter Paralympics.

After the format for the women's and men's super-combined competition was forced to be changed due to weather conditions, the slalom component was staged first while the super-G portion of the event will be run on Friday (14 March).

As a result, the women’s slalom was moved from Friday to Wednesday (12 March) with the first run slated for 9:00 (MSK) and the second run set for 12:00 (MSK). Wednesday was originally scheduled as a day off at the Alpine Centre.

Two Russians laid down the gauntlet in the slalom stage of the super-combined.

Valerii Redkozubov, in the visually impaired class, clocked a time of 50.60, ahead of Slovakia’s Miroslav Haraus (54.29) and Spain’s Gabriel Jaun Gorce Yepes (56.22).

In the men’s super-combined standing, Russia’s 16-year-old Alexey Bugaev threw down a 50.30 to go into first while Canada’s Braydon Luscombe was in second with a time of 52.17 and Austria’s Matthias Lanzinger is in third after logging a 52.43.

“It was very difficult, especially with the weather conditions,” Bugaev said. “But they did a good job getting the track ready. It didn’t really affect my race, we ski in all kinds of conditions. I’m ready for anything.”

In the men's sitting event Roman Rabl of Austria is holding strong atop the leaderboard with a time of 58.71. Thomas Nolte of Germany is in second with a time of 59.25 and Philipp Bonadimanni of Austria is in third clocking a 59.42.

A Russian also is leading the women’s super-combined visually impaired after the first race. Aleksandra Frantceva logged a time of 58.68 ahead of Great Britain’s Jade Etherington (1:01.8) and the USA’s Danelle Umstead (1:08.48).

In the women’s sitting category Germany’s Anna Schaffelhuber finished first with a run of 1:00.73 while her teammate, Anna-Lena Forster was second with a 1:01.04. Austria’s Claudia Loesch finished third with a time of 1:05.12.

France’s Marie Bochet also laid down the gauntlet as she collected the fastest women’s time of the day in the super-combined slalom standing run with a 53.48.

After clocking a 55.86 to take second place in the standing class leaderboard, Germany’s Andrea Rothfuss said:

"The slalom is only 50 per cent (of the overall time), but I'm very glad that I was able to see the finish line. In slalom, it's usually enough if you can see two or three gates ahead of you.”

Stephanie Jallen of the USA (57.98) is in third in the standing class.

But before the women can contest the super-G in the second half of the super combined, they will have to perform the slalom again on Wednesday (12 March), a race in which Rothfuss is the reigning silver medallist from Vancouver four years ago but Bochet won at the 2013 IPC Alpine SkiingWorld Championships in La Molina, Spain.

In the women’s slalom visually impaired class Farkasova and Frantseva finished first and second at the World Championships while Viviane Forest of Canada and Farkasova won gold and silver in Vancouver four years ago.

In the women’s slalom sitting class, Germany’s Forster and Schaffelhuber went first and second at in La Molina, while Loesch won gold in Vancouver.