Charlie Raposo ended his season in the perfect manner in securing his fifth national Giant Slalom title. He was joined on the National podium by Ed Guigonnet and George Black as tough conditions accounted for many of the pre race favourites. Raposo finished third overall, despite having lead after the first run, Leo Anguenot took the race win ahead of his compatriot Loevan Parand, both had been tied for second after the first run just 0.14 behind Raposo.
Raposo was delighted to have ended his season on a high after a stellar season that saw him score World Cup points on three occasions. With the tough conditions that saw the course become a real challenge for some of the later runners, Raposo admitted that his early number on run one, he went number 2, had helped him to take the lead on the first run.
"I am not too disappointed as the two French boys have been ripping it up ob the Europa Cup tour this year," Raposo explained as he waited to go up to collect his awards.
It has been a long time since Britain has had something to talk about in Giant Slalom and Raposo is very much responsible for this. He has worked hard and looked at every opportunity in how he can improve his chances and this hard work is now being rewarded.
Taking second in the race for the British Title was Ed Guigonnet. Guigonnet with second has moved into the lead for the Overall title and his consistency is impressive. While he explained that he was a little disappointed to be so far behind Raposo in terms of time, Guigonnet was four seconds off the pace of Raposo, "you cannot be disappointed with second place among the British racers," he explained after the race.
If Guigonnet expected to be challenging for the upper places on the British podium, third place was a surprise to many but not to his coaches at Ambition. George Black is a first year FIS racer and his coaches were not surprised at all with this performance. Black finished in 26th overall but as Guigonnet pointed out, third place on the British podium is a great achievement.
Top five out of the British racers saw David Christey and Elliott Bennet take top thirty results overall. Owen Vinter and Roy Steudle, two of the leading challengers for the Overall both came out as did Laurie Taylor who was making his debut in this season's National Championship.
Like for the women's race, the men were subjected to tough visibility and falling snow. Many racers challenges came undone as they came off the traverse and tried to go too straight into the next section and ended up skiing outdoor in many cases sliding out.
The National Championships conclude with the Slalom for the men and the women doing the Giant Slalom while both will be battling the weather.
Men's National Giant Slalom Championship results
Action shots from all the racers are available at www.racerready.zenfolio.com