Gold at the National Champs SX

After a successful week of training and competition in Thredbo, we headed to Mt Hotham for the National Championships / ANC Cup Ski Cross events.

Training was scheduled for Friday, however gale force winds up to 80km hour and poor visibility meant that training became a 'high speed inspection'. The following day, the weather improved slightly and we were able to get qualifications for the first race off. I qualified 1st, with a lead of 0.75 seconds. There were a few Olympians and international competitors at the race, including the Russian Ski Team.

On Sunday we completed both races. I took gold in the first race, with 2nd and 3rd going to two Russian competitors. In the 2nd race, I qualified first however finished in 2nd place in finals.

 

 

I was extremely happy with the results. It was great to shake off the nerves and compete again on home turf. Hotham did an incredible job getting the races off given the weather! Also thanks to Steve Cuff for the photos, and to Suzuki for sponsoring the event.

Rip Curl Freeride Pro

Training has finally 'officially' started for the Australian National Ski Cross Team here in Thredbo.

I've been here in NSW for the past week training early mornings, starting on snow at 7am. Although it's early and requires waking up in Jindabyne at 5:15am every morning, the skiing at this time is unbeatable and well worth it.... beautiful sunrise, perfectly groomed snow and no one on the hill. We've also been training on the ski cross course which Thredbo gratefully built for us. It has some cool features, including a wu-tang at the start, some rollers, berms and a big table jump.

On Tuesday I competed in the Rip Curl Freeride Pro for the first time. It's a prestigious big mountain competition held every year at Thredbo for Australia's best big mountain skiers. A few international competitors also came for a chance to show off they're skills. 

The weather happened to be perfect, with blue skies and 15cm of fresh snow from the night before. The top four female skiers make it to finals, and I finished in fourth. Unfortunately finals on Wednesday were canceled due to gale force winds, so results went off qualifications. The Buller girls dominated, taking out the first four places in the comp. First was Zoe Jaboor, second Anna Segal, third Nat Segal, and myself in fourth. Go Buller!

Here are a few shots from the comp...

 (The girls enjoying the sunshine... Myself, Zoe, Anna, Nat and Karinya)

(Going big off the hip jump)