Moore and Mentel do the World Cup double

Great Britain’s Ben Moore and the Netherlands’ Bibian Mentel did the double at the IPCAS Para Snowboard World Cup in Kelowna, Canada this week winning both their races on Thursday and Friday (28 and 29 March).

Nearly 30 athletes from 10 countries took part in the final World Cup event of the 2012/2013 season.

In the women’s lower limb impairment class, Mentel was in superlative form dominating competition. On Thursday she took gold in 2:59.56 ahead of the American duo of Amy Purdy (3:35.39) and Heidi Jo Duce (4:07.91) in silver and bronze medal positions.

The podium positions were exactly the same on Friday with Mentel taking gold (2:53.67), Purdy the silver (3:23.88) and Duce (3:58.02) the bronze.

Like Mentel, Great Britain’s Ben Moore was also unbeatable in Kelowna.

On Thursday Moore’s overall time of 3:00.02 placed him ahead of the Italian duo of Roberto Cavicchi (3:15.42) and David Preziosi (3:17.72) in silver and bronze in the men’s upper limb impairment class.

Friday again saw Moore (3:00.56) top the podium ahead of Cavicchi (3:10.12), whilst USA’s Joseph Chandler (3:12.32) finished third.

The men’s lower limb impairment class saw the closest competition of the week.

Thursday’s race was won by New Zealand’s Carl Murphy. Despite a disastrous first run which saw him finish tenth, the Kiwi was fastest in the second and third runs to take gold in 2:47.89. Silver went to USA’s Evan Strong (2:51.00) and bronze Strong’s teammate Keith Gabel (2:51.95).

On Friday, Strong got his revenge and was fastest in each of his three runs to take gold in 2:43.31. Murphy had to settle for silver (2:45.16) whilst Gabel (2:46.12) picked up his second bronze in two days.

Snowboard will make its Paralympic debut at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games.

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