Russian athlete Alena Zavarzina

© Yegor Aleev/TASS

MOSCOW, March 8. /TASS/. The world Cup freestyle skiing and snowboarding will start on Wednesday on the slopes of the Spanish resort of Sierra Nevada. Within two weeks the tournament will be played for 12 sets of medals in freestyle and 14 – snowboarding.

20 sets of medals at the forthcoming tournament will be played in the Olympic disciplines. FRS March 8 at the world Championships scheduled for Mogul competitions, March 9 – mind the non-Olympic dual moguls, March 10 – acrobatics. 18 March there will be competitions in half-pipe and ski cross, March 19, slope-style.

In the first snowboard finals will be held March 11 – slope – style and half-pipe, the next day will be the winners in the Bord-cross-country March 13 – team tournament at the Bord-cross, 14 March – in the parallel giant slalom, March 15 – parallel giant slalom, March 17 – big-air . In the non-Olympic disciplines snowboard parallel slalom are (in Pyeongchang this kind will give place in the program big air) and team snowboard cross.

In the current season world Cup freestyle Russian athletes took their places on the podium only in acrobatics, where the last test before the world Cup took place Saturday on the stage in Moscow, the third place was taken by Maxim Burov. At other stages the winners were Stanislav Nikitin, Lyubov Nikitina, Kristina Spiridonova and Alexander Orlov, who with luck can qualify for world championship medals.

In the national team of Russia in moguls at the world Cup will act as Egor Anufriev, Maxim Mikhailov, Sergei Sambuev, Marika Pertakhia and Regina Rakhimova. In the absence of the injured Alexander smyshlyaeva, mogulist the strongest country in recent years, the coaching staff relies primarily on girls – Parthia and Rakhimov regularly in the finals and qualify for awards. In slope-style will be Denis Nekrasov, Lana Prusakova, Anastasia Tatalina, in the half-pipe – Pavel Chupa, Roman Egorov, Valery Demidov, Pauline Inteva and Yelizaveta Chesnokova.

Hope Alain Zavarzina

Russian snowboarders in the Cup season, he won individual stages and the main hopes are pinned on Olympic champion and world champion 2011 Alain Zavarzina, which stands in the parallel giant slalom. In February Zavarzina won the Cup in Bansko the Bulgarian and on the route of the Olympic Pyeongchang, becoming the owner of a small crystal globe.

In addition, the world champion, Andrey Sobolev in December won the parallel slalom at the world Cup in Italian Cortina d’ampezzo and Vlad Gagarin in early January – at the Moscow stage for big air. Not the best acts this season, the Olympic champion of Sochi Vic Wild, who had not won prizes at the world Cup.

The combined world Championships for freestyle skiing and snowboarding are only the second time. Two years ago the tournament was held in the Austrian Kreischberg, where Russian athletes won four medals. World champion in parallel giant slalom was the snowboarder Sobolev, who also won a silver medal in the parallel slalom – and Zavarzin in the parallel giant slalom. Freestyle bronze medal in moguls won Smyshlyaev.

The first world championship freestyle was held in 1986, snowboarding in 1996.