Molly Butler and Vici Palla made it two British racers on the podium in the opening ANC race at Mount Hutt in New Zealand. Butler took second behind American rising World Cup star Elisabeth Bocock. Vici Palla took third ahead of her training partner Arianna Forget of Canada.
While Bocock was in a class of her own, fastest on both runs, Butler was not far behind as she scored a career 6th best result in Giant Slalom. With the penalty in races having been increased this year in an attempt to level the playing field, this was a very encouraging result for Butler as the new season starts to build up.
While Vici Palla is a more recognised Slalom racer, having competed on the World Cup in the discipline, this was also a strong result given the change in the FIS points.
The changeable conditions in Europe have made heading south more cost effective this season. Both Swiss glaciers, Saas Fee and Zermatt have had to limit the time they are open this year due to the warm weather and so heading south to New Zealand, Australia and South America has been a popular destination in search of reliable conditions.
After the race Palla explained “The conditions were pretty difficult - soft snow, bumpy but it was a good day for me. I did train more GS this summer and it seems to pay off so far. There is still lots of improvement to make but I am really having fun skiing GS and I want to get better of course and will keep on working.”
In the men's race Freddy Carrick-Smith placed 20th, Zak Carrick-Smith 34th, Toby Jennings 36th and Matteo Padoan 44th.
Butler followed up the second place in the GS with a third on the Slalom on August 20. Liv Moritz from the US took the win with Swiss World Cup racer Aline Danioth just holding on to second ahead of Butler.
Vici Palla made it two British racers in the top ten with tenth place in the Slalom. Alice Bond failed to finish the first run.
In the Men’s race Freddy Carrick-Smith was best of the strong British entry as he took 8th scoring a 26 FIS point result. Toby Jennings placed 18th, scoring a 37 point result as Christoph Meissl, Austrian National Slalom Champion from last season took the race win, using his early start number (1) to very good use. Zak Carrick-Smith, Luca Carrick-Smith, Ryan Faber and Matteo Padoan all failed to finish the first run.
Such were the conditions, early starts helped with making good times and Jennings posted the 3rd fastest second run time to fight his way up into 18th.
The series at Mount Hutt concludes with another slalom on the 21st August.