Austria and Belgium on top of the podiums

Austria and Belgium on top of the podiums with blistering runs in today’s Giant Slalom alpine racing

Coronet Peak, Queenstown, August 28 2018. Top performances in challenging conditions in today’s Giant Slalom racing saw Austria’s Katharina Truppe and Belgium’s Sam Maes take the lead in the women’s and men’s events after outstanding runs in challenging conditions on the ‘Outwide’ course at Rocky Gully today.

19-year-old Maes is no newcomer to FIS podiums, after gaining the coveted ‘yellow bib’ from his stunning wins in the first part of the Australia New Zealand Cup series last week at Mt Hotham, Australia.

With Coronet Peak as his New Zealand training base, Maes was ecstatic about his win here today in another world-class men’s field. "First of all it was alot of fun. I had perfect snow for my first run and smashed it. The second run was tougher, as you run later in the day if you have a good first run. I fought the whole way and made a couple of mistakes but my skis ran very well," said a happy Maes. Mathias Graf of Austria and Matthias Roenngren of Sweden laid down scorching runs to finish second and third, completing an all-European men’s podium today.

New Zealand’s Adam Barwood skied strongly into 13th spot and Willis Feasey finishing in 15th place.

Katharina Truppe of Austria showed her dominant form, leading after the first run and putting down a very fast second run in challenging conditions on course. Maryna Gasienica-Daniel of Poland skied a very strong run to finish in second place with Lena Duerr of Germany skiing strongly into third place. Alex Tilley of Great Britain and yesterday’s winner Alice Robinson of NZ were unable to complete the challenging second run course, putting them out of contention for the top places. New Zealand’s Piera Hudson skied a very solid second run in soft bumpy conditions to finish 4thoverall.

Racing continues tomorrow in the Audi quattro NZ Winter Games with the first day of slalom racing on the ‘Outwide’ Course at Coronet Peak.

Unfortunately, due to poor visibility, the Snowboard Cross Team event at Cardrona Alpine Resort had to be cancelled today and there is no space in the schedule to run it at a later date.

For full results of today’s racing go to:

Tuesday 28 August 2018
FIS Australia New Zealand Cup Giant Slalom – Men’s – LIVE RESULTS
FIS Australia New Zealand Cup Giant Slalom – Women’s – LIVE RESULTS

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