South American tech heats up in Chile

By Published On: September 6th, 2017Comments Off on South American tech heats up in Chile

The Chilean resorts of El Colorado and La Parva played host to men’s and women’s South American Cup (SAC) slalom and giant slalom races over the weekend. Big European names were in the area for summer training camps testing their race legs against the best talent South America has to offer in the two-day series.

Saturday’s GS races at El Colorado saw Norwegian rising talent Rasmus Windingstad take the men’s victory with a combined time of 1:46.11 seconds and a minimum 6-point FIS score. German World Cup regular Dominik Schwaiger finished nearly a full second back in second place and Slovenia’s Miha Hrobat  rounded out the podium finishers in third, 1.81 seconds off of Windingstad’s winning pace. Argentina’s Sebastiano Gastaldi was the top South American in fifth and Canadian racer Declan McCormack was the top North American finisher in 15th.

On the women’s side, Italian World Cup skier Anna Hofer took the win with a two-run time of 1:52.80, 0.66 seconds ahead of Czech talent Ester Ledecka in second. Argentina’s Nicol Gastaldi nabbed the final podium spot for the South American contingent in third, 0.75 seconds back with American Mallorie Miller taking top North American honors in 27th place.

Sunday’s slalom action saw the field make the short trip to La Parva where Frenchman Martin Arene and Czech racer Ondrej Berndt finished in a tie for the men’s race win with times of 1:36.14 seconds. Long time Croatian national team member Natko Zrncic Dim finished a slim 0.10 seconds shy of the win in third with Thomas Birkner de Miguel of Argentina leading the way for the South Americans in fourth. Canadian NCAA star William St-Germain was the fastest North American in 10th.

Spain took top honors in the women’s race with Nuria Pau crushing the field by a full two seconds with a combined time of 1:39.57 seconds. Argentina’s Gastaldi was once again the top South American in second-place overall and Ledecka grabbed her second podium appearance in as many days in third, 2.67 seconds back. Canada’s Beatrix Lever was the fastest North American in fifth place, 4.35 seconds shy of the win.

Complete GS results are available here.

Complete slalom results are available here.

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