The first three of four ANZ races in Mount Hotham saw some hugely impressive results for Reece Bell as she scored two top five results including a first sub 30 point result in the first of two slalom races. Bell has a great pedigree and after having to watch New Zealand’s Alice Robinson steal the 2001 year of birth headlines last year, Bell put almost a second on the Kiwi in the slalom race. There have also been strong results from Jessica Anderson, Daisi Daniels, Sarah Woodward, Liv Foster and Sam Todd Saunders so far.
Jess Anderson took two seventh places in the Giant Slalom races, scoring solidly in the mid forties on both races. Anderson will be looking forward to getting back to her base in New Zealand and racing in the ANZ races at Coronet Peak to try and replicate the twenty point result she scored there last year. The races in Coronet Peak are on 27 - 30 August. With more better ranked skiers making the trip to compete in the ANZ Cup, Anderson and the rest of the British contingent competing in Australia and New Zealand this summer will have a great opportunity to put down some good scores if they ski well.
Having scored a career best to date 24 points in Coronet Peak in the FIS GS after the New Zealand Championships, Sarah Woodward is backing up the promise and potential her coach Marc Telling, feels she has. Woodward lets her skiing do the talking and a tenth in the opening GS was promising in a race won by German World Cup racer Lena Duerr.
Another racer rapidly making her mark this summer is Daisi Daniels. Daniels is just starting her FIS career and broke through the 70 FIS point mark with a tenth place in the first of the Slalom races in Mount Hotham, she scored a career to date best of 66.
Nine races into her summer programme and Liv Foster is starting to match the results she was scoring last season. An eleventh and thirteenth from the two ANZ races have not really represented what she is capable of after she opened her summer campaign with a 61 point result in slalom in Cardrona, New Zealand. Foster has the potential to go faster.
The men’s results racing over in the ANZ series have seen Sam Todd Saunders raise the bar with a super impressive 36 point result in the first GS. Tom Hudson produced a career best to date result of 64 in the same race, a race won by Adam Zampa, a hundredth ahead of rising Belgian star Sam Maes with Lara Gut’s brother Ian taking third, his best results since swapping to race for Liechtenstein.
Owen Vinter, Charles Rankin, Jake Doyle and Diaco Abrishami all raced as well in Mount Hotham as did Kathryn Bailey and Soneva Scott in the girls races.
Sofia Iglina has been scoring some solid 60 point results in the FIS races in El Boison in Argentina, placing third in the second of the two races. Ed Guigonnet some strong 60 point results in the same set of races.
Full results on the FIS web pages