SOCHI, March 14 (R-Sport) – Russia and the United States booked a mouthwatering sledge hockey final at the Shayba Arena, while 16-year-old Alexei Bugaev shone on the slopes on Thursday, the sixth day of the Sochi Paralympics.
Elsewhere, there was off-piste controversy as German skier Anna Schaffelhuber was given the gold medal in women’s slalom after her earlier disqualification was overturned, while Britain and China reached the curling semifinals.
Sixteen-year-old Declan Farmer was the star for the United States with two goals and an assist as his team rolled to a 3-0 win over old rival Canada in Thursday’s semifinal.
The U.S. remains on track to retain the gold medal it won at Vancouver 2010, but faces a stern challenge Saturday in the Russian host team, which beat the Americans 2-1 in the preliminary round.
For the highly-rated Canadian team, it is the second straight Paralympic semifinal loss after Vancouver, when Canada finished fourth on home ice.
Earlier Thursday, Russia beat Norway 4-0 in the other semifinal, ensuring a medal for the Russian sledge hockey team in its first Paralympic appearance.
Bugaev brought Russia its 18th gold medal of the Sochi Paralympics, braving a badly worn course to win the men’s standing slalom.
Bugaev, from Krasnoyarsk in Siberia, led after the first run and extended his advantage on the second to win in a total time of 1 minute 38.97 seconds, with French silver medalist Vincent Gauthier-Manuel 1.27 seconds off the pace.
"I believed, but I wasn't sure until the end," he told R-Sport. "I've been doing this sport since I was a kid and I just like it crazily." The Paralympics are "something holy for an athlete," he added.
Bugaev completes the full set of Sochi Paralympic medals after winning silver in Saturday's downhill and bronze in the super G on Sunday.
The bronze went to Alexander Alyabev of Russia, a further half-second off Gauthier-Manuel.
Earlier, Russia’s Valery Redkozubov and his guide Evgeny Geroev won the men’s visually impaired slalom ahead of Yon Santacana Maiztegui of Spain and 41-year-old Canadian Chris Williamson.
In the sitting slalom, Japanese skier Takeshi Suzuki brought his country its third gold at the Sochi Paralympics. The 25-year-old, who earlier won bronze in the downhill Saturday, was the fastest over two runs at Rosa Khutor, beating the second-placed Philipp Bonadimann of Austria by 2.68 seconds.
The bronze went to another Austrian skier, Roman Rabl, who was just 0.14 seconds off Bonadimann. He is also the favorite for gold in the super combined, which finishes Friday.
Dino Sokolovic was close to clinching the first ever medal for Croatia at the Winter Paralympics after posting the fastest first run, but missed a gate on his second run and failed to finish, blaming the worn state of the course.
German skier Schaffelhuber was given slalom gold after appealing an earlier disqualification in a ruling that also caused Laurie Stephens of the United States to be stripped of her bronze medal.
Schaffelhuber was almost five seconds faster than her opponents in the women's sitting slalom event Wednesday but had been disqualified for apparently raising her outrigger skis in an illegal manner at the start of her first run.
She has now been given the gold after the race jury “decided that Schaffelhuber had not gained a competitive advantage from her start and therefore should not have been disqualified,” the International Paralympic Committee said in a website statement.
The decision drops another German, Anna-Lena Forster, to the silver medal position, with bronze for Canadian Kimberly Joines. U.S. skier Stephens, of Masschusetts, is demoted to fourth.
At the Ice Cube Curling Center, Paralympic debutant China and Turin 2006 runner-up Britain completed the list of Sochi Games semifinalists on Thursday.
On the last day of the round robin, Wang Haitao skipped China to a 6-3 win over Britain, bringing the team its fifth victory and setting up a semifinal against reigning champion Canada.
"We are much more excited now. Not as nervous, but excited,” Wang said. “We were nervous today more than we were yesterday, but we are excited now because we are in the semifinals."
Canada suffered a surprise 12-1 defeat to Finland and let Russia snatch first place in the standings after the host team beat Slovakia 7-4, eliminating it from the tournament.
Andrei Smirnov's team, which won the world championships in 2012, will clash with Britain in the second semifinal on Saturday.
The semifinals, final and bronze medal game will all be played Saturday.
On Friday, snowboarding makes its Paralympic debut with men’s and women’s events in the snowboardcross at Rosa Khutor.
There are also six gold medals on offer in the Alpine skiing super combined events, all of which were postponed from Tuesday due to fog.
At the Laura Biathlon & Ski Complex, six golds are up for grabs in biathlon.
Russia ends the day with a commanding lead in the medal, with 18 gold medals against six for second-placed Germany. Ukraine is in third with three gold medals and four silvers, ahead of Japan with three golds and one silver.
