First Junior World Champion title for New Zealand

A New Zealander, a very young talent: she is just seventeen years old. Alice Robinson is the first queen of the Junior World Ski Championships Val di Fassa 2019. The young talent of the southern continent won the ladies’ giant slalom with a final time of 1'54"99, followed at 1"04 by the Swiss Camille Rast. Bronze, at 1"16, for the Norwegian Kaja Norbye.

This is the first world title in the history of the Junior World Ski Championships for New Zealand, which returns to the stage of great skiing after the triumphs of Annelise Coberger (Olympic silver in slalom at Albertville in 1992 and junior bronze in slalom in 1990 at Zinal) and Claudia Riegler, able to win five times in the World Cup in the 90s.

The victory in the Junior World Ski Championships follows by a few days the first and second place achieved in the two giant slalom races of the European Cup in Berchtesgaden and, above all, the excellent seventeenth place in the giant slalom of the World Cup in Aare, with the fastest time in the second run.

Robinson is the first talent of the new international academy founded in recent months by Chris Knight, longtime technician of Lindsey Vonn, who returned home to cultivate New Zealand talents with his wife, the Italian Enrica Cipriani, who acts as an intermediary with Val di Fassa to organize training on the Dolomite slopes during the winter period.

Second after the first run – following the Slovenian Meta Hrovat - Robinson has conquered the title recording the best time in the second run, hosted on the Aloch track, perfectly prepared for the ladies.
The performance of Alice, perhaps put pressure on Hrovat, who did not have the chance to finish the race she was skiing, a great run just a couple of hundredths of a second from Alice Robinson. With Hrovat out of the games, the Swiss Rast and the Norwegian Norbye, completed the podium.

So, Slovenia ranked fourth, thanks to the performance of Neja Dvornik, followed by last years’ champion Julia Scheib.

Tomorrow two titles will be awarded during the Junior World Ski Championships in Val di Fassa. The men will compete on the downhill on La VolatA slope in Passo San Pellegrino, while the ladies will fight to conquer the title in special slalom on the Aloch slope in Pozza di Fassa. The two races will start at 9.30 am and 12.30 pm.
The downhill, instead, will start at 11.00 a.m., with live television on Eurosport (Europe, Asia and Pacific), Rai Sport (Italy), Orf (Austria), NBC (United States), CBC (Canada), Circuito Poverknost (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine) and streaming on the Olympic Channel platform (www.olympicchannel.com). The second training of the downhill held today was won by the eighteen-year-old Norwegian Atle Lie McGrath, who completed the track with 1'20"42 and preceded the winner of the first race Manuel Traninger, 23 cents behind, with the French Florian Loriot third at 0"28.

Release by JWSC Val di Fassa

Results: JWSC Ladies' GS