A year after they had maybe envisaged taking part in their first FIS races, those born in 1997 have finally been let loose of the world of FIS racing. And already there have been some exciting results coming in from the new generation of British racers born in 1997. This year has seen an ... Â increased FIS programme from the British Ski Academy and the strong squad of racers they have assembled are pushing each other on to great things: The results in the San Pellegrino CIT races have seen a number of the racers there raising their games and people are taking note!
The stand out results of the races came from Robert Poth. Poth trains with the Aktiv race programme that has joined forces with EDEP this year and opened with a 96 FIS point result in his first FIS race and then followed that up with an even more impressive 79 FIS point result. Poth's ability has long been known and the hard work that he has put in over the summer with his fitness training is paying dividends. (Robert Poth's FIS page). Poth has also scored a 106 Â result in GS at the same set of races.
Fraser Buchan, part of the BSA group, added two solid results with and 128 and then a 105 FIS point results at the San Pellegrino races with Milo McCloud scoring a 146 to open his FIS results career, Jake Lismore posted has posted a 151 in the first slalom at San Pellegrino.
In the girls races so far this season, Sofia Iglina has scored the stand out result with an 89 point result in Giant Slalom in Val Thorens in early December and has backed this up with two strong slalom results in Liemone Piemonte (110 and a 111) as well as a 112 and 120 in Giant Slalom in Sestriere.
After scoring a 108 in Cardrona, New Zealand in the summer, Issy Kirk posted a promising 124 in Super G at San Pellegrino. The race included a number of World Cup racers. Natalia Harte scored a 91 in the same race, her sister Giulia 136 and two of the 1997 year of birth racers, Jazmine Butcher (156) and Kirsty Guest (170) made their first FIS Super G starts.
The future is looking promising with new programmes from the Academies and Training groups giving the young racers great opportunities.