Edition 94| 24 JANUARY 2008

Ski & Snowboard Australia E-News 94

200 Medals for Ski & Snowboard Australia

With Dale Begg-Smith’s World Cup Mogul victory at Lake Placid, USA, over the weekend, Ski & Snowboard Australia’s tally has reached 200 World Cup, World Championships and Olympic Games medals since Malcolm Milne won Australia’s first in the 1969 Downhill World Cup event at Val d’Isere, France.

Since Milne’s historic victory, Australia now has a record of 85 Gold medals, 56 Silver and 59 Bronze at an average of 5.8 medals per season. Although it took 31 years to reach the 100 medal mark, it has taken only a mere 6 years and 10 months to double that tally, taking the count to 200 medals.
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Freestyle

Begg-Smith king of the hill in New York

Dale Begg-Smith has emphatically confirmed his status as the world’s number one moguls skier, winning gold in Lake Placid to stretch his lead at the top of the World Cup points table.

Begg-Smith’s 13th career victory followed a silver medal at the same New York state venue on Friday, and propels him to a 64-point lead in the title chase.

The 23-year-old sits on 220 points after three of the season’s 11 events, with Canadian Alexandre Bilodeau his nearest challenger on 156 points.

And in Kreischberg, Austria, former Olympic alpine skier Jenny Owens claimed bronze in a World Cup ski cross event, her second podium of the week.

Begg-Smith qualified in first place, leading in the turn points and fourth in the air, but skiing a conservative pace down the hill.

But in the final he pulled out all stops, claiming the best turn points once again, rating third best in the air, and blitzing all but one other skier in his speed down the course.

He ended with 26.37 points, 0.8 ahead of Bilodeau, with Patrick Deneen of the USA third on 25.32 points in what was the American’s second podium finish for the weekend.

Begg-Smith has now won five of his last seven events, and made the podium in one of the others.
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Cooper makes it three straight for the season

Jacqui Cooper has collected her third straight aerial skiing victory for the season with a dominant performance at the Lake Placid World Cup in New York state.

Cooper landed her two triple somersaults to earn 213.95 points from the judges, a massive 15.74 points clear of her nearest challenger, Xinxin Guo of China.

Swiss skier Evelyne Leu was third with 190.71 points, while Cooper’s team-mate Lydia Lassila (nee Ierodiaconou) finished in fourth position on 182.05.

The third member of the AIS/OWI team, Liz Gardner, finished in ninth place on 149.18 points.

Cooper qualified in first place on 104.89 points, just 1.53 points ahead of her Chinese rival.

But in the single jump final, the 35-year-old Australian blew away the opposition, putting down a double twisting triple somersault that received maximum landing points and was just five points off a perfect score.
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Alpine

Branch takes on the Hahnenkahm downhill

NSWIS speed skier Craig Branch has finished in 38th place in the renowned Hahnenkahm downhill in Kitzbuhel, his best placing in one of the toughest events on the circuit.

Branch covered the 3.2km Streif course in a time of one minute 56.26 seconds, 3.41 seconds behind the gold medal-winning time of World Cup downhill defending champion Didier Cuche of Switzerland.

Silver was split between Bode Miller of the USA and Austrian Mario Scheiber, both 0.27 seconds behind Cuche.

Earlier in the week, Branch had skied out of the super G at the same venue. That event was won by Liechtenstein’s Marco Buechel in a time of one minute 15.44 seconds, 0.26 seconds ahead of Austrian legend Hermann Maier.

It was Maier’s first World Cup podium since December 2006, and Buechel’s first super G victory since February 2003.

“Kitzbuhel definitely lived up to its name of the gnarliest beast of a course out there,” Branch reports following the downhill.

“The top and bottom sections of the course are by far the most intimidating out there. I think the race organisers tried to make the hill as challenging as possible. They succeeded!”
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Cross Country

McConville on the Podium

Chloe McConville has made her first podium in a FIS international event, taking third place in the Swiss Cup sprint in Sion on Thursday January 17. The 20-year-old from Myrtleford qualified second in the 1km time trial behind Sandra Gredig of Switzerland, then in the A-final lunged her way into third place after a spectacular fall together with the eventual fourth placed skier. Six out of the seven Australians competing in the night sprint made it through to the final rounds, though it has to be said that the field was a little slimmer than the last Swiss City-Sprint which was also an OPA Continental Cup.

Ben Sim qualified for the open men's final in 11th place, 7 seconds behind the fastest qualifier Gaudenz Flury. Callum Watson was only 1.5 seconds behind Sim, and qualified in 7th place for the U20 finals. In the U20 women's class Juliette Booth, Georgia Merritt, and Jaffa Withers qualified in 9th, 10th, and 11th place, all within 0.25 of a second of each other. Aimee Watson qualified 5th in the open women's class, however only the top four women were taken directly through to the A-final. The fields were a little slimmer than the last Swiss City-Sprint which was also an OPA Continental Cup.
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Snowboard

Torah Bright takes silver at the European Open

Torah Bright has continued the defence of her 2007 Burton Open Series title by finishing second at the Burton European Open even in Laax, Switzerland.

In a field containing the world’s best female riders, Bright scored 88.33 points to go down narrowly to 2002 Olympic halfpipe champion Kelly Clark of the USA on 92.67 points. Rounding out the podium was 2006 Olympic halfpipe champion Hannah Teter, also of the USA, who scored 82.67 points.

In the men’s event, 2006 Olympic halfpipe champion Shaun White of the USA was edged out of first place by fellow countryman Kevin Peirce.

After three events of the Open Series, Torah Bright sits fourth on the overall standings with two events remaining.

Young Australian snowboarder Scott James also had success at the event, winning the youth division slopestyle and halfpipe events.

Courtesy OWI/Sportcom


Mixed fortunes for Shaw in Spain

Ski and Snowboard Australia rider Joh Shaw experienced mixed fortunes in the double-header World Cup parallel snowboard meet in La Molina, Spain, over the weekend.

Shaw finished in 19th place in the opening parallel GS event, the sixth of the season, missing a berth in the finals by just three places.

Then in the second day’s parallel slalom, she was on track to grab her second finals appearance of the season, riding to fourth place in her group in the first qualifying run.

But unfortunately she was disqualified in the second run, finishing the event well back in 30th place.

The 25-year-old Brighton rider retains a top 20 place on the World Cup rankings, sitting in 19th position on 1012 points.

Heidi Neururer of Austria leads the standings on 4800 points from Dutch rider Nicolien Sauerbreij on 4600.

Courtesy OWI/Sportcom

Sport Shorts

Alpine

Children's FIS Alpine Events
Brauer Injury Puts Season in Jeopardy

Cross Country

Breakthrough in China Tour de Ski!

Freestyle

NSWIS/SSA Development Mogul Team Update

Snowboard

James Wins Burton European Open Double
SSA SBX Camp Report 2008