They came into the race as the two stand out racers in the entry and they were the two racers that the rest of the field looked to beat. Megan Jenkins (BSA) and Robert Poth (Telford) not only delivered but also showed just how far the rest of the field have to go to catch up with these two racers. Jenkins may not have had the challenge of Yasmin Cooper to deal with but you can only beat those who are in the race, and beat them she did. It was not a walk in the park for her but wins in both runs showed her ability to comfortably take the overall win ahead of Issy Kirk and Jessica Anderson. Robert Poth meanwhile is growing both in stature and ability. Last season he demonstrated how good he is and this season he has raised his game even more and left the rest of the field, from the first run onwards, knowing that it will be a long season if he continues in this form. Poth, like Jenkins, won both runs and with Euan Kick second in both runs he took second overall with Zak Vinter holding on for third place.
While Jenkins took the first run by just under four tenths from Jessica Anderson, a number of racers crashed out on the first course and this made Jenkins task easier: Anna Henderson was one in particular who crashed out on the first run when she was expected to push Jenkins hard for the race win. Jessica Anderson gave Jenkins a challenge and then a time consuming mistake on the second run saw her drop to third overall, allowing the consistent Issy Kirk to gain second overall. After crashing on the first run, Francesca Lee demonstrated that she will be pushing the girls in her age group hard this year in taking third on the second run, pushing Anderson down to fourth on the run. Marion Legeais and Ella Still both put in promising first run results but failed to match it on the second run.
Alicja Krahelski and Isabella Hoskins traded run wins in the Under 14 age group and when the times were totted up, it was Krahelski who had the faster combined time to take the win overall. The two finished well inside the top ten overall in sixth and seventh. Like the leading two in the age group, Rhona Price and Megan Riley traded third place between them over the two runs with Price edging out Riley for the Combined third place in the race for the age group, Price put in a great second run, pushing Hoskins into third, who was just ahead of Isabella Colley.
While Poth was the stand out racer in the U16 boys race in winning both races comfortably, Euan Kick pushed him hard but just could not overhaul him. Better was to come from Kick in the second day of racing. Jordan Fellows had been pushing his team mate hard in training in Alpbach but when it came to the first run, Fellows was blown away and had to settle for third behind Poth and Kick. Fellows will ski better and be closer but this was not his day. Zak Vinter profited from the demise of Fellows on the second run to take third on the run and overall.
In the younger age group, the under 14's, Kristofer Berglindarson gave some of the older racers as well as the rest of his age group notice of his ability with fifth place on the first run before a mistake ridden second run that saw him place fourth on the run but hold on for the age group win overall. Mathieu Avent won the second run after he had been disqualified on the first run. Alasdair Sandland and Mathew Ray filled the overall podium spots with Berglindarson. After a poor first run that saw him have trouble on the steep, Angus Wills just failed to make the podium but his second run showed what he is capable of. Wills was second with Toby Deighton, another disqualified on the first run, in third. This is a strong age group of racers and it will be interesting to see how they all fare when skiing on top of their game with no mistakes.
With Jenkins and Poth showing the rest the way, it was sad to see Fraser Middleton suffer a nasty injury on the first run and we wish him a safe and speedy recovery.
Results