Speedy Robinson adds another string to her bow
AUCKLAND: For 18 months, Queenstown ski racer Alice Robinson and her team have been trying to find a downhill that fitted into her schedule.
Now, after backtoback secondplace finishes in her first races in the ultimate speed event, the 20yearold looks likely to add the blue riband discipline to her Beijing Winter Olympic schedule next month.
Robinson finished second at the Orieres Merlette Europa Cup downhill on Saturday in a repeat of her debut performance 24 hours earlier on the same slope.
After the first race, in which she stormed into second after starting from the back, she had an advantageous start position of bib 3.
‘‘It was pretty good today,’’ Robinson said.
‘‘I was a little bit fatigued, but I just went out there and my top section was really good — I had some good improvements up there.
‘‘I had a couple of slight line errors down the bottom which I think is where I lost some speed, but it is still a good result.’’
The results at the secondtier Europa Cup level mean Robinson has been able to lower her downhill FIS points, enabling her to not only take part in world cup downhill training in the days before super G races but also the potential to race in downhill at world cup level and the Olympics.
Cocoach Chris Knight said Robinson had confirmed the belief in her ability in speed skiing.
‘‘We always thought Alice was going be a good speed skier and there’s no question that is the case,’’ he said.
‘‘That’s her future, as well as GS [giant slalom], and we’re really excited.
‘‘Having under 80 points in downhill means that she can start the training runs and actually race world cup downhill now.
‘‘Our idea was, by having under 80 points, to do the training runs which gave her time on the hill before the world cup super G races, which always come after the downhills.
‘‘We will see how it goes in Cortina with training runs and then decide after that if she races or not.’’
Cortina d’Ampezzo, in Italy, is the venue for the next world cup downhill and super G races on January 2023.
Before that, Robinson was to compete in a world cup super G late last night (NZ time) at Zauchensee, in Austria.
While Robinson is expected to be a force in her top discipline, giant slalom, at the Olympics, — and could also be a contender in super G, having placed fourth in her last world cup race in Switzerland last month before contracting Covid, downhill is now clearly a possibility for Beijing.
Queenstown boarder Cool Wakushima (19) rode her way into fifth place at the Swiss round of the snowboard slopestyle world cup yesterday, a career best.
After qualifying for the finals in third place against some of the best riders in the world, Wakushima put down a solid first run with a lip slide on the down rail, a 50/50 wildcat out of the pyramid rail and a 540 over the roller.
In the jump section, Cool stomped a cab double underflip and a frontside 720, finishing off with a backside air with a melon grab on the quarter pipe. She was rewarded with a 71.15 and finished run one in fifth position.
In her second run, she upgraded the second jump to a frontside double 1080, bumping her score up to a 75.95. It was the first time she had landed the highly technical trick in competition.
Although Wakushima stepped up her run, so did her rivals, meaning she remained in fifth place once all the athletes had completed their second run.
Australian boarder Tess Coady claimed victory, Pyeongchang Olympic big air champion Anna Gasser (Austria) was second and Annika Morgan (Germany) was third.
Fellow Queenstown boarder Tiarn Collins was 11th in the men’s event.
It was the final FIS snowboard slopestyle world cup event before the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Neither Wakushima nor Collins has yet been named in the New Zealand team, but there are more selections to be confirmed. —