World Champs, Junior World Champs & World Cups – Action Continues To Heat Up This Week For Brits
Following a week which saw the medals flow for Great Britain at the Freestyle World Championships as well as the para alpine and telemark World Cups, the action doesn’t slow down over the coming days.
The European Youth Olympic Festival kicked off yesterday, the technical events are taking centre stage at the Alpine World Championships, the speed ski World Cup starts this week while Jasmin Taylor is on the brink of history when the telemark World Cup and World Junior Championships visit Slovenia.
FREESTYLE SKIING & SNOWBOARD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Park City USA – Thu 31 January to Sun 10 February
The Freestyle Skiing & Snowboard World Championships came to a close on Sunday with Great Britain finishing the event with a medal of each colour and a host of strong performances over the finals weekend.
Zoe Atkin (13th) and Sam Ward (19th) were unable to win through to their respective ski halfpipe finals but both put in strong performances.
After the snowboard big air was cancelled due to weather, the slopestyle qualifiers got underway on Saturday with Jamie Nicholls (18th), Rowan Coultas (25th) and Matt McCormick (56th) missing out on places in the 10-man final.
The moguls team finished out the Championships with four best-ever British results from as many events.
In the ladies’ moguls, Makayla Gerken Schofield was 11th, bettering Jilly Curry’s 13th place from the inaugural moguls World Championship in 1986. She was then 14th in the dual moguls, beating Joanne Bromfell’s 14th in 2003. Max Willis scored 15th place in both events), beating the men’s records of 24th (individual) and =17th (dual) which had stood since 2001.
ALPINE SKIING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Åre SWE – Mon 4 to Sun 17 February
The Alpine Skiing World Championships continue this week in Sweden with the technical events to be raced over the coming days.
In Saturday’s men’s downhill, Jack Gower finished 41st on Saturday however he was unable to finish the first leg of today’s alpine combined.
Later today the Alpine Team Event will take place where Dave Ryding, Laurie Taylor, Charlie Guest and Alex Tilley will be hoping to emulate their impressive performance in PyeongChang where they earned a top five finish. They face highly-fancied Germany in the first round and if successful, will line up against France or Russia in the quarter-finals.
The men’s and women’s giant slalom and slalom races will take place over the following days.
PARA NORDIC WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Prince George CAN – Fri 15 to Sun 24 February
The World Para Nordic World Championships kick off this week in Canada where GB is sending a five-strong team of skiers.
Scott Meenagh and Steve Arnold will contest the biathlon events and will be joined in the cross country events by Callum Deboys and Steve Thomas.
Rachel Morris will contest the ladies’ cross country events.
For most of the athletes it is not just their first World Championships, it is the biggest event of their new careers with a number of the skiers in their first season of the sport.
PARA ALPINE WORLD CUP
Veysonnaz SUI – Wed 6 to Sat 9 February
Menna Fitzpatrick and guide Jen Kehoe had a golden World Cup week in Veysonnaz, coming away from their five races with four gold and one silver medal.
It was also a fantastic event for Neil Simpson who continued his breakthrough season at the senior level. While unable to finish his runs at the recent World Championships, Simpson was back being guided by his brother in Switzerland where they earned a fifth-place finish in Friday’s giant slalom, followed by fourth on Sunday where they were just 0.34 seconds off the podium.
SNOWBOARD CROSS WORLD CUP
Feldberg GER – Sat 9 to Sun 10 February
Even when she has a bad day, Charlotte Bankes continues to fire off fantastic results and last weekend was no different.
The World Championships silver medallist missed out on a top-two finish in the semi-final but was able to come out in the small final to score fifth place and remain in fourth on the 2018/19 World Cup standings.
** In the snowboard cross Europa Cup in the Czech Republic on the weekend, Bradley Gaulter produced the best result with 31st, while Claire Winthrop’s 12th-place was GB’s best at the ski cross Europa Cup in Germany.
CROSS COUNTRY WORLD CUP
Lahti FIN – Sat 9 to Sun 10 February
Andrew Young earned the second-best individual World Cup result of his career on Saturday when he was seventh in the men’s free sprint in Finland.
Both Young and James Clugnet comfortably qualified into the top 30, however only Young was able to move through to the semis.
Needing a top-two finish to guarantee a place in the final, Young made a late charge and while a photo finish was necessary, the three-time Olympian missed out by just 0.02sec.
Young and Clugnet then came out on Sunday in the team sprint event being contested in their less-preferred classic style. While they were unable to move through to the final, the 11th place finish is the best a British team has ever finished in a World Cup classic team sprint.
TELEMARK WORLD CUPS & WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
Bad Hindelang GER – Sat 9 to Sun 10 February
Krvavec SLO – Thu 14 to Mon 18 February
Jasmin Taylor continues to find her way to the World Cup podium with third-place finishes in Saturday’s sprint and Sunday’s parallel sprint in Germany.
The result takes Taylor to 28 FIS World Cup podiums, just one shy of the British record held by freestyle skier Jilly Curry.
Taylor will have the opportunity to match, or even surpass Curry’s record later this week in Slovenia where three disciplines will be contested at the World Cup in Krvavec.
She will be joined in the World Cup in Slovenia by Louis Hatchwell who will contest the men’s events. The 2019 Junior World Championships will run alongside this week’s World Cup, with Alec and Colin Dixon flying the British flag.
The Telemark World Cup will be streamed online at https://livestream.com/TeleHo/events/8500992.
EUROPEAN YOUTH OLYMPIC WINTER FESTIVAL
Sarajevo & East Sarajevo BIH – Mon 11 to Fri 15 February
The European Youth Olympic Festival kicked in Bosnia & Herzegovina on Monday with some strong results across the three snowsport disciplines being contested in Sarajevo – alpine skiing, cross country skiing and snowboard.
After falling on his first run, Gabe Adams showed no nerves as he stomped a 95-point second run to win his heat and earn his place in today’s snowboard slopestyle final. Ethan Smith, Lewis Moore and Leon Drynan didn’t move straight through, but they did finish high enough in their heats to claim a place in the semi-finals and will be fighting hard to join Adams in the final.
The girls’ slopestyle qualifying was postponed yesterday due to heavy conditions with Luca Mai Lane-Hopkins and Lara Cabrera-Myram hoping the weather clears for them today.
At the alpine course, Sarah Woodward and Victoria Palla started the girls’ slalom in great form, both hitting top-10 times on the first run. While Palla recorded a DNF on the second run, Woodward finished eighth overall, just 1.24sec off the podium. Daisi Daniels and Olivia Foster finished 25th and 26th, respectively.
Edouard Guigonnet, Oliver Weeks, Owen Vinter and Charles Rankin will contest today’s boys’ slalom. Giant slalom will be on Wednesday and Thursday followed by Friday’s team event.
At the cross country course, Alexander Franks-Penty was 46th in the 10km classic – only two-time Olympian Callum Smith has produced better results at EYOF when he competed at the festival 10 years ago. Beinn Horsfall was 64th. This week the pair will also contest the 7.5km free skate event and sprint classic.
SPEED SKI WORLD CUP
Salla FIN – Wed 13 to Thu 14 February
Jan Farrell broke through for his first World Cup podium in Speed 1 last season and will be looking for more success as the season kicks off in Finland.
This event is just one of two World Cups which will take place before the World Championships in Vars, France next month.
In 2017/18 Farrell ranked fifth on the overall Speed 1 World Cup standings, the highest season-ending result he has achieved in his career.
