It has taken a while for Charlie Guest to get to accustomed to her Europa Cup starting spot but in Kirchberg on January 21 Guets put together a result that saw her score Europa Cup points for the first time. Guest, through her exploits in ... the Australian and New Zealand Cup in the summer of 2013 where she won the series and this allowed her to start in the Europa Cup just after the top 30, has struggled in raising her game for the Europa Cup this year. Her best result prior to the race in Kirchberg was a 32nd place in the Giant Slalom in Zinal in early January. With Kirchberg looking to make the move up from hosting a Europa Cup to hosting a Nighttime Giant Slalom World Cup race  by 2016, this was a great opportunity taken by Guest.
The race was won by Austrian World Cup star Kathrin Zettel and Guest used her starting slot of 32 to good advantage on the first run, according to her coach Stefan Moser: "Super first run skiing into 24th. The second run saw her overskiing a bit as she was nervous as well. All in all this was still a good effort!"
Coming into the race Guest and her training partner, Alex Tilley had both been suffering a little with poor health. Alex Tilley, who was not far off qualifying in the Lienz World Cup Giant Slalom in December, failed to finish the second run. A good result like this will do wonders to improving the health. Talking after the Flachau World Cup Night Slalom a week ago, both racers stated that Sochi had not been part of their plans for this season.