Continental Cup update from the Southern Hemisphere

Adam Zampa at the Mt. Hotham ANC races. SSA TV

It has been a busy few weeks for the Continental Cups with races taking place in Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and Chile.

This year 16 of the 26 scheduled Australian New Zealand Cup (ANC) races took place in Mt. Hotham (AUS) and Coronet Peak (NZL), while the last 10 races were cancelled due to weather.

In the first races of the ANC season, three ladies consistently made it to the top of the rankings – local favorite Greta Small (AUS) won a slalom and giant slalom and claimed second place in the second giant slalom race. Piera Hudson (NZL) claimed a victory and second place giant slalom finish while Sabina Majerczyk (POL) claimed a victory and a second place finish in the slaloms and a third place finish in the giant slalom.

After achieving his career highlight by finishing sixth in slalom and fifth in super combined at the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Slovakian Adam Zampa remained in great shape and dominated all four races at Mt. Hotham (AUS).

“It has been a very successful season for the ANC races with competitions with low penalties providing a great opportunity for racers to improve or confirm FIS points and start the winter season in Europe with better starting positions. We also saw a great participation of nations with 13 teams joining the AUS and NZL ones at the races,” noted FIS Continental Cup Coordinator Peter Gerdol. “Organizers also faced some weather challenges but they did a great job at ensuring a smooth delivery of the events.”

“In the beginning of the day it looked like we would have no race because it was very foggy, very windy, but then it changed like magic and it was a good race for me,” said Zampa one day in Mt. Hotham. “In the first run I was sixth, and then I made a good second run and I won today.”

“The snow’s been hard and we’ve have some good racing going on,” noted U.S. Ski Team slalom specialist Nolan Kasper who tried his hand at some GS as well. “This really is the start of the season for everybody, so it’s great to come down here and have this great opportunity, great snow, great weather to do something and get the season started.”

From Sept. 3-8, the ANC Cup moved to Coronet Peak where the Austrian ladies claimed all podium spots in both slalom races. Norwegian World Cup skier Ragnhild Mowinkel cut into the Austrian spree by winning both giant slalom races. On the men’s side, Americans claimed the top three spots in one slalom while Norwegian Espen Lysdahl won the other. Repeating his success from the week before, Adam Zampa won the two giant slalom races. With the conclusion of the last races, Zampa and Small were named overall winners of the ANC Cup.

Since the middle of August, 18 races took place as part of the South American Cup (SAC) while the four races scheduled to take place in Chapelco (ARG) and Valle Nevado (CHI) were cancelled due to a lack of snow. In the first races, held in Cerro Catedral (ARG), the Argentinian team took full advantage of home snow. Maria Grampa, Salome Bancora and Sebastiano Gastaldi all claimed victories. A few days later in the slalom held in Antillanca (CHI), Bancora and Gastaldi won again. And while Bancora won the giant slalom in El Colorado and the slalom in La Parva, it was France’s Geoffrey Mattei and Theo Leleu who claimed the men’s giant slalom and slalom victories respectively at the two venues.

The most recent races of the SAC were the ladies’ and men’s super G and two downhills held in La Parva from Sept. 1-5. Another four races for the men and four for the ladies will be held in Cerro Castor, Ushuaia from Sept.  10-13 and a speed block in El Colorado (CHI) after which the winners of the SAC will be known.

Release courtesy of FIS