Where to Ski And Snowboard - British skiers finish season strongly

British skiers finish season strongly

21st March 2017, by Abi Butcher

Slalom skier Dave Ryding has finished the season ranked eighth in the world

Slalom skier Dave Ryding has finished the season ranked eighth in the world after a successful last race in Aspen, Colorado and has said he is “very confident” of the future of the British team.

The 30-year-old from Lancashire finished eighth at the 2017 Audi FIS World Cup Slalom Finals after a fantastic season that has resulted in him climbing the ranks from 22nd place in 2016. He was sitting in 19th place after the first run and threw everything at his second run — the second fastest of the day at 44.23.

“It was all or nothing…I skied loose and it was a really nice way to finish the season,” said Ryding, whose best result this season was a silver in Kitzbuehel on 22 January.

In that race, he finished second to Sweden’s Andre Myhrer — who won last weekend’s finals with a time of 1:27.97. Felix Neureuther from Germany took second place and Austria’s Michael Matt finished third.

Meanwhile in freestyle ski slopestyle, James Woods and Isabel Atkin both won bronze medals at last weekend’s World Championships in Sierra Nevada, Spain. “Woodsy” said he was happy not to walk away with any further injuries after a crash on his third and final run, describing organisers as “pathetic” saying only really fell because “the stupic course wasn’t built right”.

Joseph Thomas Fitzgerald, co-ordinator for freestyle skiing for the International Ski Federation (FIS) told the BBC the weather had been “really tough to work with” and that the FIS needed “more contingency planning”.

Isobel Atkin, 18, who became the first British woman to win a Ski Slopestyle World Cup — at the Swiss ski resort of Corvatsch on 3 March — said finishing with a bronze at the World Chamionships was a “definite confidence booster going into the Olympics next year.”