Having completed a successful month long training & race block in South America, Team BSS athletes Max Baggio (EC Team) & Darcie Mead, Honor Clissold & Ollie Davies (Under 18s Team) have returned to the UK with a haul of ... Personal Best results.
FIS - EC Team athlete Max Baggio achieved PB results in all 5 alpine disciplines, as well as picking up his first points in freestyle, finishing 8th in the El Colorado South American Cup SkiCross competition. The results across Slalom, Giant Slalom, SuperG, Downhill & Super-Combined show across the board progress for Britain's top 1995 skier, particularly given the standard of the events.
Max said “It's really good to come back with the results and im really happy with them. We have worked from May until September on technique, so I knew I was skiing better technically and then it was just a case of executing in the races, which I did in most of them.”
16 year-old Darcie Mead continued her run of form after winning last years British Ladies title, with a top 10 place in the Nevados de Chillan SuperG against numerous members of the German World Cup Team, including Olympic Medalists Maria Reisch and Viktoria Rebensberg. This was a fantastic result for Britain's Number 2 ranked speed skier, and Darcie felt that she took a lot from the races, as well as the training in South America.
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The Team Evolution FIS Athletes in South America[/caption]
“We've had a really good camp down here, with training and races in Valle Nevado, El Colorado, La Parva and now Nevados de Chillan. We've got so many miles of skiing done it's been exhausting but really productive. Training and racing alongside the Swiss, German, Austrian, Russian World Cup Teams is an amazing experience and it really focuses you on where you are and what you need to do t progress. I've got a lot to take back to Europe and feel like I'm really well prepared for the winter season.”
Meanwhile, first year FIS athletes Ollie Davies & Honor Clissold, newly promoted to the British Under 18's Team, completed their first races of the season, achieving the objective of getting points on the board before the start of the European season. Both completed races in Slalom, Giant Slalom, SuperG & SuperCombined, picking up valuable points and gaining experience at the deep end of the sport.
“It has been an amazing experience” explained Honor Clissold “There are some of the best skiers in the world training down here and we've been working as hard as possible to learn as much as we can. It's great to have finished the first few races and even though it's much harder than anything I've done before, I've really enjoyed the challenge!”
Ollie Davies also secured a 7th place finish in the South American Cup SkiCross to go alongside his FIS point scores, and is looking forward to the rest of the winter. “I'm really pleased to have finished my races and scored points. I was a little bit cautious as the game plan was just to get results, but now I can go back to Europe and race hard. There is more to come and I'm looking forward to getting back and training all the new disciplines, including SkiCross.”
The 4 Team BSS athletes, who are all training as part of the Team Evolution programme based in Austria for the winter season, will now return to school for the opening term before joining back up with their training group for camps in Landgraaf, Zermatt & Norway, before the winter season begins in early December.