The Super G at the English Alpine Championships is one of the exciting races of the season on the British race calendar. It is not often that the British racers get the chance to ski part of a world cup slope at high speed. The Ciuk jump on the Stelvio course is not for the feint hearted and the moment you can look over the ledge and down the 100m drop, is a moment of no return. Not all the racers out in Bormio have the desire to do the Super G because of the race and those that do do the race, are to be congratulated. After crashing out in the Giant Slalom the previous day, Matt Thompson pushed Nick Moynihan out into second spot amongst the British racers in the first of the two Super G racers in Bormio. Brad Morgan was best of the English (and Brits) in the second race, and took third place to add to his growing reputation in the International race.
Super G was created to act as a bridge between Giant Slalom and Downhill. You will hear the likes of Ivica Kostelic saying that a course is more geared to the Downhiller sometimes but this slope, the Stelvio, was set up well for the racers of all ages and abilities. The snow held up well, if anything it was a little more aggressive rather than icy than previous days yet this would have helped the confidence of the younger, less experienced racers. While the top positions were taken by some exciting and fast international racers, they spurred the British racers on to try and do better. Brad Morgan and Jo Morrison, two of the top British racers in the field may have crashed out of the first race, but as the saying goes, to be first, first you have to finish. This allowed Matt Thompson to use his early start number of 3 to good effect and post a fast time. Thompson took ninth spot, one hundredth and one place ahead of Nick Moynihan with Charles Richardson taking third amongst the English racers. Tom White and Paul Henderson completed the top five British racers.
In the second race Morgan showed his talent and strength to take third place overall as well as the win amongst the British racers. Thompson again beat Moynihan but by an increased margin. Paul Henderson took fourth with Charles Richardson taking fifth. With the same course being used for both races, the second run was slightly slower for most racers as the sun bore down on the slope.
While the Austrians and Finnish girls took ownership of the podium, the less experienced British racers used the race to learn and gain experience of the higher speed and the steep terrain over Ciuk. Violet Miller used the occasion to win both races ahead of the only other English racer in the field, Alice Macaulay, in second in both races and Nicole Ritchie from Glasgow in third in both races. Ritchie is still learning the fine art of speed racing and will have faster days.
Men's race 1
Men's race 2
Women's race 1
Women's race 2