Delancey British Team athlete, Alex Tilley continued her successful series of races in New Zealand with victory in the first of two Giant Slalom's being held at Cardona, New Zealand on Thursday. Fastest after the first run, Tilley held on to win overall despite having her advantage cut by her British team mate Charlie Guest on the second run. Guest was fastest on the second run after having found herself down in sixth after the first run to climb up to third, just behind Holland's Mandy Dirkzwager. Cara Brown also put in a solid result to take 18th spot and take a 69 point result with that. Issy Kirk scored her best FIS point result of her fledgling FIS career with a 108 point result in her first FIS Giant Slalom.
In the Men's race, Laurie Taylor ended a run of four DNF's to score a solid 76 FIS point result in 40th spot. Conor Lyne from Ireland, who raced at the last two World Championships for Ireland, placed just in front of him in 42nd spot scoring a 73 point result, a career best result for the youngster who lives in America. Sam Todd Saunders improved on his results from last year with his second best career Giant Slalom result in scoring an 85 point result. The race was won by Adam Zampa with Daniel Dejori (Italy) and Cameron Smith (USA) third.
The races in New Zealand are attracting a large number of International entries as the new season starts to gather pace. With many of the top World Stars training either in South America for the speed or New Zealand for the technical events, the standard of racing is rising across the board. Moser commented after the win for Tilley in the first of the two slaloms held in Treble Cone that the conditions the girls had been training in Cardona had been perfect: "thanks to cardrona alpine resort for perfect training facilities." With this in mind it is good to see the likes of Tilley and Guest, with the support of Delancey and trained by Stefan Moser, leading the way. Long may it continue in this Olympic season.
Full results - women
Full results - Men