Silver medal confirms promise of Fife skier

ALPINE CHAMPIONSHIPS: Christey edged out in slalom event in Italy

Fife skiing prodigy Joe Christey continued to prove he’s one of the sport’s brightest hopes with a silver medal in the English Alpine Championships slalom.

Falkland’s Christey is just 15 years old but this week’s result reinforces his position as one of Britain’s best juniors, in a week when many are focused on the senior athletes competing at the Winter Olympics.

The championships are being held in Bormio, Italy, for the 11th time and the youngsters have been in action since Sunday, competing in the Super G and Wednesday’s slalom, sponsored by Rossignol.

And the Kinross High School pupil, who races for the British Ski Academy, took silver with an overall time of 97.41 seconds, just 0.35 seconds behind first-placed Thomas Butterworth.

“I’m feeling good considering I’ve just not done as much skiing as I did last year. I’m skiing pretty well for how much training I’ve done,” said the Scot.

“This year I’ve really had to focus much more on school and stuff.

“I wasn’t really falling behind but I’m making sure I don’t fall behind in future, so skiing has had to take a backseat a little bit!

“The hill here is really nice, great snow. The first course was pretty much the same as the second course in the slalom, really grippy and it was well set.

“It let me attack it, which is my style, so I really enjoyed that.

“I didn’t expect to do this well.

“I knew that I was consistent enough to get a result like this but I just wasn’t sure. JOE CHRISTEY

“I knew that I was consistent enough to get a result like this but I just wasn’t sure.”

The slalom was Christey’s third event of the championship, the Fifer finishing fourth in Sunday’s Super G and then ninth in the second Super G on Monday.

“It’s been a good week here,” he added.

“It’s been a bit frustrating at times but in the first Super G I came fourth with a mistake at the end, and then the second Super G I didn’t attack it as much as I could, so I’ve worked on that.”

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