Russian becomes snowboarding world champ

Alyona Zavarzina has triumphed in the women’s parallel giant slalom event at the snowboard world championships in La Molina, Spain.

The Russian had few problems in securing the women's title after her rival in the final, Claudia Riegler of Austria, slid while coming out of an early turn.“I’m really happy. It’s not the first one for Russia. Second one, in fact. But it’s the first for me. So I’m really really happy. Today, you know, it’s amazing,” Zavarzina said.It is the second such achievement for Russian snowboarders, following Ekaterina Tudegesheva triumph in the same category four years ago.  The men’s gold went to Benjamin Karl of Austria, with the best of Russians, Stanislav Detkov, going down in the quarterfinals.