Romanian skier debuts at 2013 IPC Alpine World Championships

Yesterday, women's standing LW4 classified skier Laura Valeanu finished eighth in her group in the slalom event, marking the first appearance of a Romanian skier at the 2013 IPC Alpine World Championships in La Molina, Spain. No other Romanian skiers have competed thus far in the competition.

Valeanu was also her country's only participant at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver where she finished fourteenth in the giant slalom and earned a Did Not Finish in the slalom event.

Valeanu completed her first slalom run in La Molina in a time of 1:16.48, the eighth best time on that run. Her second run was a little under two seconds slower at 1:18.42, and the ninth best time in the run. Despite that, her combined run time of 2:34.90 was faster than ninth and last place finisher Úrsula Pueyo who had a combined run time of 2:35.85. Valeanu's combined time was nearly thirty seconds slower than French winner Marie Bouchet.

The women's standing group started with twelve skiers, but three skiers failed to finish their first run including Finland's Katja Saarinen, United States skier Allison Jones and Russian Mariya Papulova.

The 2013 IPC Alpine World Championships continues today with the Super Combined event scheduled.