We just had two SX Australia New Zealand Cup events at Mt Hotham, Australia. I feel like all the training is paying off and I am really pleased about the results. We had very difficult conditions to work with, rain came and washed away a lot of the course and the snow. The events department at Mt Hotham did an amazing job to get the events off. We had rain, gale force winds, bad visibility and wet snow, but they did everything in their power to make it happen.
We had quite strong fields with Magdalena Iljans (Swedish, world cup winner, 2nd at X Games 2009) as well as a Swiss young gun Fanny Smith, Noriko Fukushima (Japan,world cup winner) and the Australian national team, Japanese national team, Kazakhstan and other aspiring Ski Cross athletes. I skied well in qualification and my starts were quick in the finals. I won my first heat and was very pleased with myself. I went into the Semi final with Magdalena, Noriko (both world cup winners) and Reina Umahara (A top level GS japanese skier)..as I mentioned my starts were quick, I was right on it, and I just flew out of the start, out into the front position and held it the whole way down...I was gob smacked, did not believe what i had just done and I had moved into the grand final. The weather came in so badly that they were unable to run the grand finals and the small finals that day, and they postponed those two remainig final heats to the following day. I was a bit gutted as something was so right on Saturday, I was so switched on!!!! We went out Sunday morning to almost equally difficult conditions, they finally ran the finals and I intially got out into 3rd position which I was not happy with, but then I did a great overtake over the Swiss girl over a jump and moved into 2nd position behind Magdalena. I finished with 2nd place behind a world cup winner whom I had beaten the day before in the semi. I think this was the most satisfying result to date.
They decided to try and get the 2nd event off, so we all did our qualification run for the second event. I qualified 2nd and they were unable to run the finals due to the weather, you couldn't see 2 metres in front of you! So the qualification results stood and I finished with another 2nd place. STOKED!!!!! I have now more than met the criteria for the Olympics so now I just have to focus on top 30 results at the World Cups next season and do my best to get there. The whole weekend was really encouraging, and I now feel that when I continue working as hard as I have been, that I can give this northern winter a really good shot!
I am now in New Zealand again, pretty tired, having a rest day preparing for the final ANC SX event at the Winter Games at Cardrona which will be held on Thursday 27th August. I am looking like a contender for the overall ANC cup now, I will be in touch to let you know how I get on. Please find below a photo from the second presentation. 1st. Fanny Smith SUI, 2nd Sarah Sauvey GBR, 3rd Noriko Fukushima JPN.
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