Yasmin Cooper and Iain Innes are in scintillating form at the 2018 Delancey British National Alpine Ski Championships with the pair claiming Downhill titles in the National Junior Championships races today.
Cooper and Innes took out the Under 21 events, while the pair of Victoria Palla and Owen Vinter continued their stellar weeks by adding the Under 18 Downhill titles to their victories in the Super G on Sunday.
NATIONAL JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS – UNDER 21 DOWNHILL
After finishing second in 2017, Yasmin Cooper (1:17.37) won the Ladies’ Under 21 division and claimed the Lawson-Johnston Trophy ahead of Honor Clissold (1:19.14) and Jess Anderson (1:19.93).
The result continued a near perfect Championships for the 19-year-old who has already won the Downhill National Championship and Super G U21 National Junior Championship, in addition to her third place in the Super G National Championship.
“I can’t believe it – I really can’t,” said Cooper. “I was over the moon yesterday with the win, then two wins and now a third win of the season, third win of the British Champs – it’s all crazy, it feels amazing.”
Cooper said the conditions were much faster than yesterday’s National Championship, allowing her to attack the course more.
“The snow was so much more aggressive and grippy and I think I actually ran a bit quicker through sections from where the snow had set and then cooled,” she said. “The (better) visibility gives you so much more confidence to push a line, push what you can do and really just gun it, I guess.”
Like Cooper, Iain Innes (1:15.88) claimed his third title in as many days, finishing less than a tenth of a second in front of Zak Vinter (1:15.97) while Euan Kick was third (1:16.82).
After finishing just six-hundredths of a second behind Billy Major in yesterday’s Downhill National Championship, Innes’ victory today added the Sunfold Cup to his perfect Sunday in Super G when he claimed both the National Championship and U21 National Junior Championship.
Innes said after the race that he was happy to defend the title despite making a few errors during the run.
“I think at the top I skied about as well as I can, and then the same mistake as the last three races coming into the big quadruple, just didn’t quite nail the jump and got a bit wide,” he said. “It gets better and better each run but there’s still a lot of work to do and the time shows that because I definitely didn’t win with any margin.”
With the technical events still to come at the Championships, the 19-year-old is set to enjoy a day off tomorrow ahead of a heavy schedule of racing in the coming weeks.
“(I will) try and rest up as much as possible because we’ve got another four days of racing here at the British and then straight to Sainte Foy which is just down the valley for two races, and straight to Val Thorens for five or six days,” said Innes.
“I’m not going to do everything but there’s races every day for the next two weeks, basically, so you’ve got to pick and choose when to take days off and (I have) got to make the most of tomorrow.
NATIONAL JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS – UNDER 18 DOWNHILL
In the Under 18s, Victoria Palla and Owen Vinter claimed their second National Junior Championships in as many events, adding the Downhill to their Super G titles.
Palla (1:17.87) clocked a time which would have been good enough for silver in the Under 21 division on the way to collecting the Lions Ski Club Trophy ahead of Abi Bruce (1:19.20) and Sarah Woodward (1:20.07).
Vinter (1:17.76) was equally impressive, winning by more than three-quarters of a second to claim the SCGB Challenge Cup. Charlie Luke (1:18.54) was runner-up and Tom Hudson (1:19.15) third in a repeat of Sunday’s Super G podium.
With heavy weather expected to come in tonight, tomorrow is now shaping as a rest day before the Championships resume on Thursday with the technical events.