Reigning overall British Alpine Ski Champion, Ed Drake (22, Kingston, Surrey) started his season in excellent fashion yesterday (5^th December) finishing 11^th in the first FIS (International Ski Federation) Europa Cup Super G of the season in Reiteralm, Austria, only narrowly missing out on a top ten finish by 0.05 seconds.

The result is Drake’s best to date, improving upon his previous best performance by 12 places, and means that his qualification for the Winter Olympic Games 2010 should be confirmed later this month, when the British Olympic Association publish their qualification standards for Vancouver.

British Alpine Ski Team coach, Reini Fernsebner, commented “Ed had an excellent run yesterday - he charged the whole race. Conditions were good with sunny blue skies overhead, - 5°C and a fresh layer of snow on a hard packed base. It was a big field with some strong racers. The result is Ed’s best to date and scores him some good Europa Cup points - a great result!”

Ed commented “it’s the best possible start to the season I could have hoped for and it gives me an excellent platform for better results throughout the season”.

Also competing in Reiteralm were Douglas (Douggy) Crawford (21, Bearsden) who finished in 59^th position ahead of TJ Baldwin (18, Norwich) - 79^th, and Peter Whelan (19, Uxbridge) - 93^rd. This was the first time TJ and Pete have raced at Europa Cup level and the results are positive starts for both athletes.

Ed Drake, Douggy Crawford, Jan Kochalski and Pam Thorburn now fly out to North America where they will be training and competing in the lead up to Christmas and a return to the Europa Cup circuit in January.

For full results Click Here