Yanqing, Northern China, February 16 (BTA special correspondent Dimitar Velyov) - Alpine skier Albert Popov earned the highest ranking for Bulgaria at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games after finishing ninth in the men's slalom on Wednesday. Popov thus achieved the second-best result ever for a Bulgarian alpine skier at Winter Olympics. The highest slalom ranking for a Bulgarian at Winter Olympics was achieved by Petar Popangelov, who placed sixth in Lake Placid in 1980 and sixth again in Sarajevo in 1984.

Popov's aggregate time on Wednesday was 1:45.15 minutes. He placed ninth in the first run on 54.62 seconds and eighth in the second run on 50.53 seconds.

Another Bulgarian, Kamen Zlatkov, placed 20th after the first run but dropped out of the second run after missing a gate halfway down.

The Olympic title in men's slalom went to Clement Noel of France (1:44.09 min). Johannes Strolz of Austria and Sebastian Foss-Solevag of Norway ranked second and third, respectively, 0.61 sec and 0.70 sec behind Noel. VE