BRITISH SKIERS SET TO MAKE WORLD CUP DEBUTS

Two of the British Ski Team's rising stars, Ed Drake and Dougie Crawford, will both make their FIS World Cup debuts on Friday, January 16, at Wengen in Switzerland.

Dougie Crawford of Glasgow and Ed Drake of Kingston-upon-Thames will compete in the Super Combined and Downhill events respectively at the FIS World Cup event on Wengen's infamous slope - The Lauberhorn.

Drake, 23, the reigning overall British Men's skiing champion, improved his world ranking last year by 457 places to 147th and his Super G ranking by 510 places to 96th. He has started the current season strongly, finishing 11th in a tough Europa Cup competition at Reiteralm in Austria last month, before heading over to North America and producing a string of top ten results.

Dougie Crawford, 21, started last season with a superb 14th place in a Super G in Chile, and followed up with several top ten finishes. He has been in good form this season, with impressive performances in North America.

Over the past week both athletes have been competing in the Europa Cup competition in Wengen. Competition has been fierce but both athletes have put in solid performances, convincing their coaches that they are ready to take the next step and compete in a World Cup event.

Ed Drake said: "I'm really excited about getting my World Cup career underway. It's a great experience for me in the lead up to the World Ski Championships. We were here in Wengen last week competing in the Europa Cup competition which has given us experience on the middle part of the course. This is a huge advantage as it takes in the jump and the 'S' bends which are some of the most difficult sections of the course".

"The downhill in Wengen is the longest in the circuit, and the course will be a minute longer than what we were racing last week which means I'm going to have to pace myself. This is one of the classic events of the Tour and a race I've been looking forward to since the start of my career".

Dougie Crawford said: "I'm very excited about the weekend but even more so as the race is in Wengen, one of the classic stops on the Tour. There are always loads of fans, TV and noise which make it a totally different experience to Europa Cup and FIS races".

"The race is perfect preparation for me ahead of both the World Championships and the Olympic Games. The experience we gained on the track last week is a massive advantage. It gives me additional confidence going into the race knowing I've skied the course before. There is less for me to worry about - it should be good".

"Training has been going really well. I've made some technical changes to my skiing this year which are really starting to pay off, I'm a lot more confident this year".