British athletes have had a great weekend of competition – there were two career-best World Cup finishes for Dave Ryding in the slalom and Andrew Young in cross country whilst James Woods and Katie Ormerod (pictured above, CREDIT GB Park & Pipe) impressed in the Dew Tour over in the US.
Delancey Alpine Team skier Dave Ryding clinched his best ever World Cup finish yesterday, securing a 12th place on a technical course in Val d’Isere. Ryding firmly stamped his mark on the World Cup for the season, in an exciting race, which saw Henrik Kristoffersen, take the win ahead of Marcel Hirscher and Felix Neureuther.
Ryding (pictured above inspecting the course, image credit: Team BSS) said of his career-best: “It feels pretty cool. It was great to get back to racing on the World Cup circuit, and to finish 12th on such a demanding piste was fantastic. I was very pleased with the way I skied and to produce things I have been working on over the summer. I’ve now just got to keep trying to ski well and see where that takes me.”
Meanwhile over in Switzerland, British Nordic team athlete Andrew Young (pictured below, credit Fabienne Mauz) also secured a career-best result, taking a 9th position in the Sprint Freestyle final in the Davos World Cup.
British Nordic coach Roy Young said of the performance: “It was a stunning prologue performance – which is how the stadium announcer called it as Andrew entered the final straight. From the end of the prologue there were a lot of high fives and congratulations from athletes, waxers and coaches. The target had been qualification, so to take 9th place has made it an excellent day. Hopefully we can carry this on into the next sprint on Saturday.”
At the Dew Tour in Breckenridge, there were superb performances from James Woods and Katie Ormerod, with both athletes’ just missing out on podium positions. On Friday, Katie Ormerod landed her first ever cab 900 in competition, but just missed out on the podium in the women’s Snowboard Slopestyle, finishing in 5th place. Katie’s teammate Jamie Nicholls made it through to the last chance qualifying round in the men’s Snowboard Slopestyle, but couldn’t make the run to send him to finals. Aimee Fuller finished 8th overall, just missing out on the Snowboard Slopestyle finals.
Yesterday, in the Ski Slopestyle finals, despite being at the top of his game, James Woodsy Woods also had to settle for 5th place. After qualifying for the final in first position, Woodsy put in two high quality, clean runs, but the standard was so high, he got pushed down into 5th place, with Gus Kenworthy taking the top spot.
British Snowboard Cross
At the Snowboard Cross World Cup in Montafon, Austria, Zoe Gillings-Brier put in a strong performance in her first World Cup of the season, finishing in 15th position after making it through to the quarterfinals. Stephanie Gehrig unfortunately didn’t qualify for the finals.
British Alpine Team
In Are, Sweden, Alex Tilley wasn’t able to progress through to the second run in Saturday’s GS or Sunday’s Slalom World Cup, but over in Kvitfjell, Cara Brown, put in four strong performances over the weekend. She finished 45th and 31st in the two Super G races, and also took 31st in Giant Slalom and then 33rd in the Alpine Combined.
GB Park & Pipe
In Copper Mountain, the US Rev Tour continued into the weekend with the Ski Halfpipe. Molly Summerhayes put in two fantastic performances making it to the finals in both days of competition and finishing in 6th on Thursday and 3rd on Friday. And in her return to competition following injury, Rowan Cheshire had a fantastic result on Friday finishing 4th position improving on her 8th place finish on Thursday Madi Rowlands also impressed with a 16th on Thursday, and 15th on Friday.
In the men’s competition, James Machon took an excellent 4th place on Thursday’s Halfpipe, with Murray Buchan taking 10th and Pete Speight in 23rd in his first competition since returning from a knee injury. Friday saw Buchan finish 29th and Speight 25th.
British Nordic
Andrew Musgrave raced alongside teammate Andrew Young in the Freestyle Sprint in the Davos World Cup this weekend, finishing 61st, and in the 30km Freestyle he came 32nd.
Annika Taylor tackled her second ever World Cup, competing in the ladies Freestyle Sprint and finishing in 55th position in Davos.
