Super Cooper racks up the medals at alpine ski championships

The Delancey British National Alpine Ski Championships are currently taking place in the world-class ski resort of Tignes, France until April 1.

The downhill event took centre stage on Tuesday morning and Cooper produced a pair of incredibly impressive runs to win senior bronze, junior gold and U18 gold – adding to the super-G junior and U18 golds she notched on Sunday.

The results are even more impressive bearing in mind she crashed out of the downhill race at last year’s Championships and admitted she was scared while in the start gate this time around.

The 17-year-old ultimately overcame that fear in style and is accumulating quite the medal haul in the French Alps, but claims she is still in disbelief at the success she is finding.

“It feels amazing to have done so well,” said Cooper. “I think if you had told me I was going to come to these races and get these results, I don’t think I would have believed you to be honest.

“I’ve always been a bit tentative with downhill and I tried to do this downhill last year but I crashed, so to come back and face it again was a really good feeling to know I’ve overcome it.

“I was terrified before the first run but I had a bit of training and just tried to be as smooth and positive as possible and not back away from the skis.

“I didn’t really expect to pick up any senior medals coming into the Championships but obviously I hoped to and it was something I was striving for. I certainly didn’t think I would get that in the downhill.”

Cooper’s trophy collection could grow even further when she competes in the slalom and giant slalom races later this week and unsurprisingly, the teenager is full of confidence heading into those.

“I feel really good ahead of the tech events and really confident,” added Cooper. “I’ll do some training to get myself ready and hopefully I can pick up even more medals.”

The super-G event opened proceedings on day one and Cooper’s time of 1min 29.62sec was enough for her to finish second behind Jessica Anderson in both the junior and under-18 competition.

She was only a quarter of a second behind her good friend Anderson on the day but with her speciality being the slalom and giant slalom disciplines, she was positive about winning silver.

“I’m more of a technical skier, so to come second in a speed event is really encouraging for me,” said Cooper. “I’m doing downhill next and that is going to give me some really positive vibes heading into the final few days. I’m going in with an open mind and seeing what I can do.

“I wasn’t too surprised with my result because I have trained in super-G, I just prefer to do tech events. Last year I won the super-G title but I’m still happy with silver.”

* To follow the progress of the Delancey British Alpine Ski Team visit www.teambss.org.uk or follow @teambss on Twitter. As principal sponsor of British Ski and Snowboard, Delancey is proud to be able to provide British athletes with the support they require to win World Cup and Winter Olympic medals. For more information visit www.delancey.com

The championships are the biggest event of the year for the British ski racing world and Delancey are the principal sponsor for the sixth year running.

LUKE BAKER

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