Reece Bell carried her winning form over from South Africa as she won a FIS Slalom in Falls Creek, Australia this week with an impressive winning margin of 1.45 seconds over Australian World Championship racer Greta Small. In New Zealand the talk was all about the performance of Sarah Woodward as she made a career best 24 point result in the GS in Coronet Peak.
The increased number of British racers that have travelled abroad to get early season results during the northern Hemisphere summer, has seen some real encouragement. Bell’s run of six wins in the South African slalom race series gave an indication of where she is at and then to carry this on in Falls Creek is impressive. Sadly the results for the rest of the British girls in Australia were not as strong.
In New Zealand, the double Giant Slalom and Slalom including the New Zealand National Championship races attracted a number of World Cup racers both in the men’s and women’s races. Belgium’s Sam Maes scored strongly, single figure results in winning both the National Championship men’s races. The Men’s slalom races saw the top 17 score under 50 points in the Championship race and the top eleven in the FIS race achieve the same feat. These were certainly not give away races.
From a British perspective it was not only Woodward that caught the eye but there were some food results from Jess Anderson in the slalom races as she scored two top ten results taking a 52 and 42 point results. Olivia Foster continued her encouraging form in the slalom as well with two sub 80 point results.
At the Men’s races in Falls Creek, the roll of honour of British athletes this summer with a second and then a win in the two slalom races. in the second of the two slalom races Vinter beat Sam Todd Saunders by 0.25 as the two British racers took the top two places on the podium.
With the second FIS seed list now in operation, it is encouraging to see two of the British Ski Academy 2002 racers in the top three of their year group in the World. While, as the BSA Facebook account explained, few 2002 racers have started their FIS careers it is a positive moment in time that the racers can bask in!
FIS results