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Preview
- Downhill -
Giant Slalom - Super
G - Combined Champs
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Giant Slalom
Lynn Sharp overturned the form book to win the Women's Giant Slalom
title in Meribel today as The British Land National Ski Championships
head towards one of the most exciting final days for many years.
Great conditions
It was reckoned to be the best day of giant slalom competition seen
at these championships for dozens of years. The Meribel facilities
are second to none and this allowed two giant slalom course to be
set and run at the same time. The Men's and Women's first runs were
run simultaneously. Then the women's race was decided before the
men's second run started. With yet more fresh snow to contend with,
and a well formed icy base as well as plenty of unexpected bumps
and ruts to be absorbed in the flat light the courses were set to
take full advantage of the hill which is well suited to GS competition.
" It's certainly the best GS I have seen for a long time. Just amazing
with a bit of everything: flats, fast steeps, rollers and lost of
terrain coming at you fast, just great" commented Roger Cruickshank
after taking second place behind Noel Baxter in the Men's GS.
Noel Baxter on form
Baxter continued the run of form that he has shown this week. After
taking second in Wednesday's GS, Baxter was back in the more familiar
discipline. He may have silently breathed a sigh of relief when
his brother Alain, the six times British champion, crashed out but
he lost no time in setting the fastest second run time to add to
his quickest first heat to win by a full second from Roger Cruickshank.
"It was hard work today so I was really pleased to win. You had
to really keep moving and on top of your skis. We will just have
to wait and see what tomorrow brings but I am pretty happy with
my week so far." Said Noel. With Finlay Mickel taking fourth place
he still heads the overall standings but both Noel and Cruickshank
are just 25 championship points behind. Noel must be favourite to
retain his overall title.
Teen women's winner
In the women's race Sharp (18, Glasgow) made an amazing attack on
a difficult first course which really mixed different snow types
and some fast tight turns at the top with at least two blind fall
away pitches to really test the anticipation. She set up her win
with the quickest first heat by 1.35 seconds ahead of Jo Greig.
Greig rallied with the faster second run but Lynn won her second
title of the week by a margin of 0.42 of a second.
"This was one I really wanted so much that it was just fantastic
to get across the line and hear I had won. It means so much to me.
I am not thinking about the overall but just focussing on the slalom
which I will be going all out to win" said Sharp.
Women's Giant Slalom
1 L Sharp (Glasgow/The British Land Alpine Ski Team) 1:04.45 57.24
2:01.69,
2 J Greig (Weybridge/ The British Land Alpine Ski Team) 1:05.80,
3 P Thorburn (Strathven/The British Land Alpine Ski Team) 1:05.40,
58.26 2:03.66,
4 M Piper (Auchterarder/The British Home Nations Development Team)
1:07.36, 57.52 2:04.88.
Men's Giant Slalom
1 N Baxter (Aviemore/ The British Land Alpine Ski Team) 1:12.85
1:13.74 2:26.59,
2 R Cruickshank (Banchory The British Land Alpine Ski Team) 1:13.77
1:13.82 2:27.59,
3 R Green (Falkirk/The British Land Alpine Ski Team) 1:13.85, 1:14.91
2:28.76,
4 J-M Kochalski ( The British Home Nations Development Team) 1:13.85
1:15.15 2:29.00,
5 N Palmer (Glasgow/The British Home Nations Team) 1:16.62, 1:14.85
2:31.47.
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