Robinson seventh World Cup Finals
Alpine ski racing superstar Alice Robinson has wrapped up her Northern Hemisphere competition season with a seventh-place finish at the Giant Slalom World Cup finals held in Andorra.
This marks the Queenstown 21-year-old's equal best Giant Slalom World Cup result in almost two years (she also finished in seventh place in Are, Sweden nine days ago).
Robinson had a solid first run, with a few small line errors costing her precious time. After run one she was sitting in 14th position, +1.59 seconds behind the leader, American powerhouse Mikaela Shiffrin.
Knowing she had a significant amount of time to claw back, Robinson pushed out of the start gate for her second run with her trademark aggressive skiing. Clocking the second fastest run two time of the day, she claimed back almost a second to finish just +0.77 behind winner Mikaela Shiffrin and just +0.57 off the podium.
Thea Louise Stjernesund of Norway joined Shiffrin on the podium in second place, with Valerie Grenier of Canada rounding out the podium in third.
The race marks the end of the women’s FIS Alpine World Cup season.
Hall sixth at para worlds
Decorated Kiwi Paralympian Adam Hall finished in sixth place at the Para Alpine World Cup Slalom Finals held in Cortina on Friday.
The slalom race was a tightly fought race, with less than two seconds separating 2nd to 8th position, demonstrating the competitiveness of the athletes in the men’s standing category.
The Wānaka 35-year-old said: "I am really happy with today’s result. First and foremost, I am really happy with how my skiing has been the last week or so, in particular bringing that form back into racing today. This is my second-best result of the season, so really happy to have that feeling of great skiing back again.”
Adam Hall in action at the World Cup Slalom finals. Photo: Mattia Rizzi Photo / Fondazione Cortina
Hall has been based in Europe for the past three weeks, immersed in an intense training block with his team, working hard to get the flow and the feeling of his skiing just right.
“The result was not my first focus today, rather I am concentrating on how my skiing is feeling and how that’s going. I had a lot more flow and it just felt more like how it should be. The training block we have just had has definitely paid off so that’s awesome.”
The event was held on the very slope that will be host to the 2026 Milano Cortina Paralympic Winter Games, providing a fantastic opportunity for Hall to get experience on this slope.
Hall has one more race this Northern Hemisphere season, the European Cup Finals this week before heading home to New Zealand.
Double Halfpipe Golds for youngsters at European Cup Premium
Meanwhile, on Saturday Kiwi development athletes Luke Harrold and Cam Melville Ives both claimed the gold medal in their respective disciplines at the European Cup Premium Halfpipe competition held in Laax.
It was a day of action, with the Snowboard and Freeski halfpipe qualifiers being held in the morning and the finals held in the afternoon.
Wānaka 14-year-old freeskier Harrold put down an impressive qualifying run, which included a huge air measuring 17.4 feet above the coping of the 22-foot halfpipe, to qualify through to the finals in second place. He took the lead in the finals with a commanding first run, scoring an 86.67 which remained the top score of the competition.
Harrold said: “I’m super happy I was able to put down a run today, it wasn’t the run I was hoping to do, but it’s what I managed to get done in the soft conditions. I was stoked to land my switch right double cork alley oop 900 and take the win today.”
Just minutes after Harrold secured his win, Melville Ives claimed the gold medal in the men’s snowboard category. Melville Ives put down a standout run in his final attempt, taking the top spot with a score of 90.00.
Wānaka 16-year-old snowboarder Melville Ives said, “It feels really good, it’s always a relief to put it all together in the last run. I landed my cab double cork 1080 for the first time in a successful competition run and the switch back 900 I landed was a brand new trick that I have been working on, I am stoked to land it today.”
Cam Melville Ives and Luke Harrold after their double win in Laax. Photo: Snow Sports NZ
Cooper Breen (Queenstown, 13) also made the Freeski Halfpipe finals in his first European Cup halfpipe event, finishing in a respectable 7th place.
And in Tignes, France the FIS World Cup Slopestyle Finals were going down, with Luca Harrington (Wānaka, 19) achieving a career best World Cup result, finishing in 10th place in the heavily stacked field.
Ruby Star Andrews (Queenstown, 18) was competing in the women’s slopestyle finals in France. Andrews was planning on a technical run that included three different 900-degree rotations on the jumps but was unable to put it down and finished in 9th place. Regardless, Andrews said “I had one of the best trainings of my life and I am hyped.”
