Rare summer home for Hall

PARA alpine skier Adam Hall has wrapped up his 2018 competition season with a silver medal in slalom at the World Para Alpine Skiing Europa Cup in St Moritz, Switzerland, and is about to return to New Zealand.

It was the first and last race of the northern hemisphere season for New Zealand’s double Paralympic gold medallist.

Hall has cut short his northern season and will be back in the South within a week.

He has spent a lot of time watching in recent weeks.

Poor weather led to the cancellation of races in Pitzal, Austria, earlier this month and the World Cup season opener due to take place in Sella Nevea, Italy, later this week has also been cancelled for the same reason.

‘‘I’m pretty happy and satisfied to finally get a race in and see how the competition is stacking up postGames in Korea. It was a good little benchmark for us,’’ Hall said.

Hall was third after the first run of a highly technical slalom course where 22 athletes failed to finish. After a clean second run he rose to second behind France’s Arthur Bauchet.

Teammate Corey Peters finished fourth in the giant slalom earlier and was also pleased to be back in the mix in his first race since the Paralympic Winter Games in March.

The team now travels to Italy for a few days’ training in lieu of World Cup racing.

Hall will then return to New Zealand for his first southern hemisphere Christmas in 15 years and will remain at home for the summer. Hall and his wife, Elitsa, are expecting their first baby in February.