Musgrave Podium Headlines Strong Performances From Brits
The fantastic winter for British Ski and Snowboard keeps rolling on with another World Cup podium over the weekend, this time in Cross Country skiing courtesy of Andrew Musgrave.
It was the sixth British World Cup podium so far this season with the others coming in Ski Slopestyle, Snowboard Big Air and Telemark skiing.
There were also top 10 results at the Dew Tour for freestyle skiers James Woods and Isabel Atkin along with a number of strong results in other events across Europe.
FIS Cross Country World Cup – Saturday 16 & Sunday 17 December – Toblach ITA
Andrew Musgrave powered to third place in the 15km free skate event at the World Cup in Italy on Saturday in a result he described as the best of his career.
In the interval start format, Musgrave had the fastest split through the first 8.5km but was eventually overhauled by Norway’s Simen Krueger and France’s Maurice Manificat.
The result gave him a strong starting position for Sunday’s 15km classic pursuit and Musgrave was with the leading group through the first two 5km circuits. However the gruelling pace told in the end with Musgrave slipping off the back to finish 12th.
Andrew Young started the pursuit in 87th but improved that significantly to record a faster time than more than a quarter of the field.
Dew Tour – Wednesday 13 to Sunday 17 December – Breckenridge USA
Two GB Park and Pipe skiers qualified for the finals of the Slopestyle event at the Dew Tour in the United States with both putting in strong performances.
Isabel Atkin finished fifth and James Woods placed seventh in the highly-competitive event.
With only eight qualifying for the ladies’ Superpipe final, Madi Rowlands was unlucky to miss out after skiing into tenth place while Rowan Cheshire’s return remains on track after a solid 16th. Murray Buchan was 17th in the men’s Superpipe.
Meanwhile, Delancey One to Watch Mia Brookes made the podium of the World Rookie Tour in Corvatsch, Switzerland. Brookes finished third in the Grom Girls Snowboard Slopestyle event while Liam Tynan and Max Jorge both made the final of the Grom Boys event.
And at the Rev Tour at Copper Mountain, USA, 14-year-old Zoe Atkin – sister of Isabel – made the podium of the Ladies Halfpipe event on Friday and backed it up with fourth on Saturday. Seventeen-year-old Sam Ward scored sixth and seventh in the men’s Halfpipe events.
FIS Alpine World Cup – Sunday 17 December – Alta Badia ITA
FIS Alpine World Cup – Tuesday 19 & Wednesday 20 December – Courchevel FRA
Charlie Raposo made his World Cup debut at Alta Badia on Sunday in the Giant Slalom and put in a strong performance in his first outing at this level.
In challenging conditions which saw the six skiers prior to Raposo failing to complete the course, the 21-year-old sent down a good run to finish 50th. While it wasn’t good enough to qualify for the second run, Raposo beat home more than a third of the 76 starters.
Elsewhere, Charlie Guest scored another strong result in a FIS race, placing third in the slalom at Flachau, Austria. It was her fourth top 10 in FIS races over the last month including a slalom victory at Levi in November.
Guest now heads to Courchevel, France where the Alpine World Cup continues tomorrow. She will be joined by Alex Tilley in the Giant Slalom on Tuesday before the Slalom on Wednesday.
Billy Major and Laurie Taylor are also set to compete in a Europa Cup Slalom event today in Val di Fassa, Italy.
FIS Snowboard World Cup – Saturday 16 December – Montafon AUT
Zoe Gillings-Brier narrowly missed out on qualifying for the knockout stages of the Snowboard Cross World Cup event in Austria, finishing in 19th place.
It was an improvement on her 23rd at Val Thorens earlier in the week and the three-time Olympian has shown some good form recently with a top five performance in a Europa Cup race in Pitztal last month.
She now heads to Italy for the fourth World Cup of the season in Cervinia later this week
FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cup – Saturday 16 & Sunday 17 December – Secret Garden CHN
A strong performance in Ruka earlier this month completed Lloyd Wallace’s comeback from a head injury and it was good to see the 22-year-old back with the best in the business at the opening Aerials World Cup of the year in China.
With two events in two days, Wallace’s best performance came in Saturday’s event when he finished 19th out of 32 starters, his eleventh top 20 World Cup performance.
The Aerials World Cup picks up again in January in Russia before moving onto the United States.
