Ashley Breese has been threatening to put in a performance that will have people raise their eyebrows for some time and he managed to put two runs together to score a career best result in coming 14th in a quality field. Breese's training partner, ... Ross Peraudo took the race win ahead of two Swiss racers, Marc Mooser and Jan Luchsinger but after the race the talk of the finish area was the exciting course that had been set for the second run that saw many of the racers taking more air than they may have liked! While Breese was the best of the British, Laurie Taylor and Kieran Norris were the next best and Zac Pierce took the best Welsh racer title.
While the talent is not in question, the ability of Ashley Breese to finish two runs in the last few seasons has seen questions being asked. Having moved to train with the Inspire set up based in Mont Geneve, France under the programme set up by Stephen Edwards, Breese has come on leaps and bounds this season. On the day that the Olympic selections for Sochi were announced, this result gives him one of the two required to qualify for the World Junior Championships. Max Baggio must be rueing the mistake he made on the second run as had he maintained his form, he could have scored his second result to qualify him for the World Juniors. The effort of Breese to make this result is even more impressive when you see that he started from a bib number of 43!
While Breese was delighted with his result, Laurie Taylor, who trains at the British Ski Academy in Les Houches scored his best Giant Slalom result of the season (a 61 point result) as well as did Ambition's Kieran Norris who scored a 75 point result.
While the slope in Les Crosets gave the racers plenty to think about, many of the younger racers experienced the speed that they approached a terrain change faster than they may have expected. With the set of the gate as they approached the change to a steeper section giving them the direction, the braver racers attacked it straight on and compressed the jump while the less experienced racers flew and landed in the soft snow below the line that they should have taken. This is all part of learning about how to read the line and having faith and the courage of your convictions when going over a blind roller!
Zac Pierce continued his fine form in the Welsh Chanpionships and while he was not happy with his first run, he put things right on the second to score an impressive 104 result in his first FIS Giant Slalom.
With the Giant Slalom concluding the Welsh Alpine FIS Championships, the focus of attention now turns to the young racers, the Children.
Full results from the FIS Giant Slalom