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Mike Minor of Frisco sweeps para-banked slalom titles in the Netherlands

Paralympic medalist Mike Minor, of Frisco, does a flip while racing down the course during the Dew Tour adaptive snowboard cross men's finals in December 2018 at Breckenridge Ski Resort.
Hugh Carey / hcarey@summitdaily.com

FRISCO — With a win Thursday, Mike Minor of Frisco made it three-for-three at the season-opening para-snowboard Europa and World Cup events in the Netherlands.

All week, Minor’s goal was to break the 44-second mark on the 18-turn banked slalom course constructed at the indoor SnowWorld Landgraaf venue nicknamed “the freezer.” On Thursday, Minor did just that in the upper-limb competition, finishing with a championship time of 43.87 seconds, making him the only snowboarder in any racing division to break 44 seconds this week.

“It’s good to be back,” Minor, a 2018 Paralympic gold medalist who did not compete on the World Cup circuit last season, wrote on his Instagram.



Zach Miller of Wildernest won his third medal of the week with a third-place finish Thursday in the lower-limb two competition. Miller’s time of 44.88 seconds was 0.62 seconds faster than his World Cup-winning time Wednesday but behind Matti Suur-Hamari of Finland (44.40) and Ben Tudhope of Australia (44.47).

Copper Mountain Resort-based American riders and Adaptive Action Sports athletes Garrett Geros (47.63), Alex Rivera (47.65) and Joe Pleban (47.71) finished in ninth-, 10th- and 11th-places, respectively.



“I’m so excited to see how the rest of this season will play out,” Miller wrote on his Instagram. “But for now, it’s time to celebrate and prepare for a cold couple of weeks in Finland!”

The 2019-20 para-snowboard World Cup season will continue with an event in Pyha, Finland on Dec. 3-4.


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