Winter Games NZ 2022 - Alpine Ski Racing Wrap Up
Winter Games NZ held a thrilling Alpine ski racing programme at Coronet Peak, with two FIS Australia New Zealand Cups in Giant Slalom and Super G, located a mere 25 minute drive from downtown Queenstown.
Super G
The opening events of the 2022 Winter Games NZ got underway on Saturday with alpine ski racers competing in two FIS Australia New Zealand Cup Super G races at Queenstown’s Coronet Peak ski area. New Zealand’s Willis Feasey and Canada’s Candace Crawford each claimed back-to-back wins in the respective men’s and women’s fields, making the best of a tight, technical course which got the better of several other competitors.
The opening events of the 2022 Winter Games NZ got underway today with alpine ski racers competing in two FIS Continental Cup Super G races at Queenstown’s Coronet Peak ski area. New Zealand’s Willis Feasey and Canada’s Candace Crawford each claimed back-to-back wins in the respective men’s and women’s fields, making the best of a tight, technical course which got the better of several other competitors.
Combining the speed of Downhill with the technical characteristics of a Giant Slalom, and contested over a single long run, the Super Giant Slalom (Super-G) makes for exhilarating viewing. The course was set on The Hurdle run which, with its steep pitch and natural rollers, gave racers every opportunity to put the hammer down and post fast times.
“It was a really fun slope, it’s such a good race hill, Coronet Peak really turned it on. It’s pretty special to win both races here today,” said Feasey who spent 10 years training on the hill as a member of the national team before taking up a building apprenticeship earlier this year. The 2018 Olympian was very pleased to find himself in the top spot, one day shy of his 30 birthday.
“The top section felt really good, I was really happy, there’s a big cranking turn right at the top and I managed to nail that and carry quite a lot of speed into the pitch,” Feasey explained after the first race.
Feasey proved that he can still be competitive against strong international World Cup racers like Slovakia’s Adam Zampa who finished second, 0.24s behind Feasey in race one and 0.58s in race two. Teo Zampa, youngest of the three Zampa brothers, was the third-place finisher in race one, 0.32s off the lead. On race two Garret Driller (USA) rounded out the podium, 1.10s behind Feasey.
“It feels really good to get that result, a wee bit unexpected,” said Feasey.
Candace Crawford was also pleased to be showing good early season form to take out to wins in the women’s field. She commented:
“I’m pretty happy, it’s early in the season for me coming from North America. I don’t normally start until October, November so it’s good to get a few races under the belt prior to the Northern Hemisphere season starting to build confidence and figure out a few things. It feels good and I can build on that and get prepared for the World Cup season in December.”
“This morning we had a few delays to the start but you just had to stay relaxed and go with the flow. The snow was a little soft because the sun had been on it all morning. You just had to really go for it even if it didn’t feel that good.”
Crawford finished race one 1.67s ahead of Slovakia’s Rebeka Jancova in second and 3.21s ahead of Finland’s Charlotte Henriksson in third. In race two, the USA’s Ava Sunshine finished in second place, 0.30s off the lead, with New Zealand’s Alice Robinson 0.32s back in third place.
Top seed and hometown hero Robinson, didn’t quite find the form that she would have hoped for from her current world ranking of 17 in the Super G discipline, posting a DNF on run one but making the podium on race two.
“I just got late and couldn’t make the gate,” she explained after race one. “You’ve got to be tactical, the course is very tight, like a GS course, I tried to be clean and fast but it wasn’t the right goal for the course I don’t think.”
Race one on today’s schedule also served as the New Zealand Super G National Championships and New Zealand Super G National Junior Championships. Michol Hinton claimed both the women’s NZ Super G National and Junior titles. Willis Feasey claimed the men’s Super G National title with Keir Roberts crowned Junior Champion.
FIS ANC Super G Race 1
Women | 1st Candace Crawford, 2nd Rebeka Jancova, 3rd Charlotte Henriksson
Men | 1st Willis Feasey, 2nd Adam Zampa, 3rd Teo Zampa
FIS ANC Super G Race 2
Women | 1st Candace Crawford, 2nd Ava Sunshine, 3rd Alice Robinson
Men | 1st Willis Feasey, 2nd Adam Zampa, 3rd Garret Driller
Giant Slalom Race 1
Om Monday we held the first of the two FIS Australia New Zealand Cup Giant Slaloms on the Winter Games NZ schedule.
Following a race postponement due to poor visibility and soft snow conditions on Sunday, day three of the Winter Games NZ dawned clear and sunny on Monday with cold overnight temperatures bringing the hard and fast snow conditions needed for ski racing.
The strong international field included athletes from 14 nations and featured a mix of experienced World Cup racers and some exciting up and coming talent. Canada’s Candace Crawford took home the win in the women’s field to back up her two first-place finishes in the Super-G, while Isaiah Nelson from the USA topped the men’s results in a hard-fought finish.
Following a race postponement due to poor visibility and soft snow conditions yesterday, day three of the Winter Games NZ dawned clear and sunny with cold overnight temperatures bringing the hard and fast snow conditions needed for ski racing. On today’s schedule at Coronet Peak ski field was the first of the two FIS Australia New Zealand Cup Giant Slaloms on the Winter Games schedule.
The strong international field included athletes from 14 nations and featured a mix of experienced World Cup racers and some exciting up and coming talent. Canada’s Candace Crawford took home the win in the women’s field to back up her two first-place finishes in the Super-G, while Isaiah Nelson from the USA topped the men’s results in a hard-fought finish.
Contested over two runs with the combined times determining the final placings, the Giant Slalom is a technical event which requires strength and precision. Today’s course was once again set on The Hurdle run with the steep, rolling terrain making for a fast and challenging course.
Crawford was back on top form today, skiing the fastest first run in the women’s field to give herself a 0.14s lead over Katie Hensien of the USA with Ava Sunshine (USA) sitting in third place.
“There were definitely a few rolls in there where it really swung and turned so you had to be prepared for that,” Crawford explained after her first run. “It was a game of where you could go on the safer side versus where you could really send it. Run two will be just going for it, not leaving anything out there but skiing solid.”
Run two got underway after a course reset with the start order for the top 30 fastest racers flipped. 30th out of the gate, Crawford made good on her race plan, charging through the course to finish in first place.
“It’s not an easy hill and you need to keep working and pushing and making speed and just having that mentality of putting it all out there,” she said.
“I feel pretty good. It’s a good step for my confidence and definitely what we’ve been working on. I know I can ski well; it’s just getting my head wrapped around the racing. I can be fast in training so it’s just transferring it over. The last two days have been a good step forward.”
Katie Hensien finished in second place 0.58s behind Crawford with Riikka Honkanen (FIN) in third 0.69s back. Piera Hudson was the top-placed Kiwi woman, finishing in eighth place, 1.49s off the lead. She was awarded the Janey Blair trophy for the fastest NZ woman in Giant Slalom.
Top women’s seed Kiwi Alice Robinson recorded a DNF on run one.
21-year-old US skier Isaiah Nelson has been on impressive form throughout the ANC series technical events, picking up a win and a fourth place in Slalom a week ago. He put together a strong first run to take the lead in the men’s field 0.05s ahead of Timon Haugan of Norway with Ian Gut (Liechtenstein) 0.13s behind in third.
“It’s pretty tough up there, there’s a lot of terrain,” Nelson commented after the first run. “Run two I’m hoping it’ll be pretty bumpy. I’ll be running 30th, I like when it’s a bit of a battle. Hopefully the snow gets a little bounced around and then I just want to ski with a lot of intensity and keep fighting. I know the top won’t feel very good for anybody, but I’ll just keep pushing.”
In terms of a strategy, it proved to be a good one, with Nelson maintaining his lead and nailing down the win by a tenth of a second.
“Like I said after the first run, I was hoping for a fight, and it definitely was,” he confirmed. “The conditions were pretty bumpy on the top and a little spring-like on the bottom. It was a pretty deep groove. I skied smart at the top, I think; I didn’t push to my limit up there but coming off the pitch I was looking for speed and I felt I did a decent job carrying it across the flats. I was happy to stay in the lead, it was a close race so I’m feeling happy.”
Timon Haugan also maintained his form on run two to finish in second place, while Andreas Zampa (SVK) was able to improve on his fourth place run one placing to finish on the podium in third place, one hundredth of a second behind Haugan.
Willis Feasey, winner of the ANC Super G races, was the fastest of the Kiwi men today, finishing in 16th place 2.88s behind the lead and was awarded the Pieter Small Smith trophy for the fastest NZ man in Giant Slalom.Winter Games
FIS ANC Giant Slalom Race 1
Women | 1st Candace Crawford (CAN), 2nd Katie Hensien (USA), 3rd Riikka Honkanen (FIN)
Men | 1st Isaiah Nelson (USA), 2nd Timon Haugan (NOR), 3rd Andreas Zampa (SVK)
Giant Slalom Race 2
Over 80 athletes from 13 nations descended on The Hurdle at Coronet Peak for the final day of alpine ski racing in the 2022 Winter Games NZ programme. On the schedule was the second FIS Australia New Zealand Cup Giant Slalom, rounding out the series.
Kiwi alpine ski racing superstar Alice Robinson has taken the win in the women’s field, along with claiming the Yellow Bib for the Giant Slalom Australia New Zealand Cup. Andreas Zampa (SVK) has claimed the top spot in the men’s field, off the back of yesterday’s strong silver medal performance in the same discipline.
Over 80 athletes from 13 nations descended on The Hurdle at Coronet Peak for the final day of alpine ski racing in the 2022 Winter Games NZ programme. On today’s schedule was the second FIS Australia New Zealand Cup Giant Slalom, rounding out the series.
Kiwi alpine ski racing superstar Alice Robinson has taken the win in the women’s field today, along with claiming the Yellow Bib for the Giant Slalom Australia New Zealand Cup. Andreas Zampa (SVK) has claimed the top spot in the men’s field, off the back of yesterday’s strong silver medal performance in the same discipline.
Another cold night produced fantastic conditions at Coronet peak, the snow on course was hard and fast, providing perfect ski racing conditions.
After the first run Robinson was sitting in fourth place, +0.84 behind Katie Hensien (USA), the current leader. A blinder of a second run saw Robinson close the time deficit and take the win by over almost half a second. Ava Sunshine (USA) finished in second place +0.49 seconds behind Robinson with Hensien in third, a mere two hundredths of a second behind teammate Sunshine.
At the bottom of the course an ecstatic Robinson said, “It feels so good, I am really happy with how I held myself today, first run was a little bit rusty and second run I just tried to get back to that usual race charge, I’m really happy.”
It has been a challenging FIS ANC series for Robinson, recording two Did Not Finish (DNF) results along with her third-place finish in Super G on Saturday. She explained “I just upped my concentration and started focusing more on the process and trusting my ability a bit more and hoping that if I skied well the results would come. Definitely a big mind change today from the last few days so I will have to keep working on that.”
Over in the men’s race, brothers Andreas and Adam Zampa (SVK) held the top two positions after run one, with Adam +0.26 behind younger brother Andreas. Yesterday’s Giant Slalom gold medalist Isaiah Nelson (USA) was sitting in third position, +0.41 behind the leader.
Andreas held his lead throughout the highly contested second run to take the win, with Nelson finishing in second, just +0.16 behind him. Adam had to settle for third place, +0.32 seconds behind his little brother Andreas.
“It feels really good, it is always fantastic to be in New Zealand and to do the races, so I am very happy with today’s victory.” Explained Andreas just minutes after his winning run.
Andreas, who finished in third place yesterday in the same discipline, explained “I was looking on yesterday’s video and thought that I could go a bit more direct and actually I lost so much time yesterday on the flats yesterday so today I think it was better.”
FIS ANC Giant Slalom Race 2
Women | 1st Alice Robinson (NZL), 2nd Ava Sunshine (USA), 3rd Katie Hensien (USA)
Men | 1st Andreas Zampa (SVK), 2nd Isaiah Nelson (USA), 3rd Adam Zampa (SVK)
