WOMEN WORLD CUP: Italy, Pragelato 29,30/09/01

As happened last year Laia Sanz and Iris Kramer shared the most important awards in the Ladies World: the World Cup and the European Championship. In Italy Alps, at Pragelato, mountain village 70 km from Turin, situated at 1,500 mt of elevation, there was the last international outdoor event of the season. Two days completely dedicated to the women: on Saturday the second and last round of the European Championship, while on Sunday the World Cup , this year separated from the Trials des Nations as requested by all the females. Only 24 girls attended on Saturday and two less on Sunday. It was a pity, because the sections were good and hospitality done by the town, too. At present, women's world can rely on two riders above all: one very young, the 15 years old Spaniard Laia Sanz, the other a bit older, the German Iris Kramer. They often competed with males without fear. More aggressive the Spaniard, more smooth the German. Last year Kramer won the European Championship and Sanz the World Cup and the same happened right now. Good to note that all the top riders improved their riding, above all the 16 that attended the FIM stage in France the week before, where instructors as Thierry Michaud, Jordi Pascuet and Amos Bilbao gave them the best advices. Unfortunately we talk of a few people and we do not make the mistake to think only for this group, forgetting to push to have more entries.

It would be a great mistake to feature sections too difficult to have the right discrimination for the top two. These guys must understand that we need more riders, but they won't come if we do not add a lower class. The referring is to the World Cup and the Trials des Nations: it sounds better to have two different percours in order to encourage new possibly entries. Meanwhile it is positive to know that FIM instituted a commission in order to promote this branch and on the site www.phototrial.it many pages are available to make known any news concerning women's world.

Saturday: European Championship: round two.
In a light rain the start of this last round of the European Championship. The first round was held in Spain and was won by Laia Sanz; second, obviously Iris Kramer. But the rules of this championship were in favor of the German, because it does not count the victory of Laia in case Iris would win the second and last round. Indeed in case of same points, who have won the last round would be the champion. So for both to clinch the title it was necessary to win. There were 12 sections to do twice. Most of them were in a creek not far from the Start, so easy for the spectators to follow 90% of the race. In each section there was also an easier lane (only for today competition) for a special classification, named International Cup. Sanz and Kramer collected many cleans.At half competition, the German led with 4 marks, the Spaniard was behind with 7. In third, Norwegian Linda Meyer with 15 mistakes. Angry for her poor performance Sanz run very fast the second loop and cleaned all the 12 sections. Iris kept her cool and lost only 2 points in section 7, topping the competition and the European Championship, for just 1 point. It is the third year in a row that she clinches the European Championship. Beautiful Linda confirmed her third place, scoring 9. In fourth place great performance of Canadian Christy Williams: scoring 13 points in the loop.

Very unlucky her sister Kerry: she broke her toe in the French stage, so she was forced to be only spectator helped my a pair of crutches. In the International Cup , there were 6 riders. The best one was Italian Alessandra Sbrana, runner-up French Blondine Guillard and third Aussian Bev Tranter, the one with a great past in Trials. She run the Scottish in 1984 and 1985, then had 15 years of rest to dedicate to the family, just the time to grow up 2 children. Now she is enthusiast to come back!

Sunday: World Cup.
On the same place the 12 sections were all modified worsening to respect the higher level requested by the World Cup. The difficulty introduced did not scare the "Two Lampkins" of the Ladies World. Receiving claps everywhere they were able to reach the last section with their cards still clean. Sanz dabbed it, while Kramer cleaned it. This was the difference at the end of first loop: 1 point in favor of the German. No chances for any other. In third position there was French Claire Bertrand, but her score was 10 marks. Very close to her English Marie Conway scored 11. Still in great concentration, rode by her expert minder Joan Pons, the Spaniard did not made any mistakes in the second loop. Not so good, her rival, suffering the pressure to know in advance the score of Laia because this one run very fast and ahead of everybody, German lost 2 points in section 3, then 1 in section 11, so her hope to win slowly faded away. For the second time in a row the World Cup title is for the 15 year old Laia Sanz. All the world will be able to see her real value next year, when she has the age necessary to run the Male European Championship (better the mixed). Second Iris and third Claire Bertrand as happened last year. Next year the World Cup will be held in France the week before the Trials des Nations organized in Portugal.