With Britain’s top racers of the last few seasons, Finlay Mickel, Noel Baxter and Andy Noble all out injured, the field was open, yet the appearance of Pierre Emmanuel Dalcin and Yannick Bertrand from France meant that the standard of racing would be high. Add this to the rising stock of the likes of Ed Drake
(fresh from his 23rd in the Europa Cup finals) you could sense that this would be an exciting and high calibre race!

The 3 British racers that made the podium all scored the best results of their careers to date. Ed making a 14 point result should lift him into the top 100 in the World Rankings, Crawford with an 18 point result and Baldwin with 26 FIS points respectively. Ed being placed in a solid 3rd position with his fellow countrymen closely behind him. (Crawford in 5th and Baldwin in 8th).

Ed took 3rd place overall in the British Land Championships Super G. This has been an impressive season for Ed Drake as he has recovered from hip injuries and has now qualified to race in the world Championships next season in Val d’Isere!

As it happened...
With the top 15 seeds being allowed to choose their start numbers and the next best 15 being randomly drawn, the race had the correct ingredients for an exciting contest! It was no surprise that the faster seeds took the early numbers. In terms of a contest many felt that the race would be over after the top French racers had been down. While Dougie Crawford may not have read this script as he came down from 15 to jump into 4th, neither had young TJ Baldwin as he posted a time that belied his tender years. Ed Drake, running from a start of 21, had to cope with a rapidly slowing course as the sun bathed the slope in heat.

Drake had been able to watch the top French racers and could see that they were quick. After he heard that Crawford had also had a quick run, he knew that he would also have to “lay a quick time down!” Once he had set himself into the start, Drake cleared his head and took to the slope.

Afterwards he admitted that the run had not been great but in places he had been fast. Down the final pitch Ed admitted to have been bumped around and was told by one of his coaches that this may have cost him overall victory! Although we all know that there is no shame to be so close to racers with the class of Pierre Emmanuel Dalcin!

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