13th FAI World Para Ski Championships, Gosau, Austria - 4th March 2011

The morning after.  Another beautiful day with time to explore the area, get some final skiing done, and just make the most of the friendships forged at this meet or over the years of competing together.  The prize-giving and closing banquet will take place at 19.00 hrs this evening at the Gosau Cultural Centre.  A few pictures of our medal winners: 

13th FAI World Para Ski Championships, Gosau, Austria - 3rd March 2011

16.00 hrs and the competition is over - the final round has been jumped, protest time has passed and all the results have been checked and signed off by the Jury.

Our new World Champions are:

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13th FAI World Para Ski Championships, Gosau, Austria - 2nd March 2011

2nd March 2011 

Another early start with people learning the course this morning, as competitors prepare for the first ski race. The slope and lifts are very busy. 

Let us hope all the "technical" problems are behind us.  The helicopter landed just as the ski race started.  At the end of the first ski run, for the women Austria Red, Magdelena Schwertl was the fastest, Slovenia ALC, Irena Avbelj in second place and Switzerland 1, Christina Franz in third.  For the men, Marco Valente, Italy was the fastest, Anton Gruber, Austria White 2nd and Reinhold Haibel, Germany, third.  The best run though was by Erik Vliegenshart, South Africa.  Not only is this his first World Championships, today was his first competitive Giant Slalom, having learnt to ski over the 5 days prior to the start of competition.  And his time was not the slowest!

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13th FAI World Para Ski Championships, Gosau, Austria - 1st March 2011

Early start from the Hotel this morning, with competitors taking the opportunity - much needed - there was a surprise gate just over a rise - to walk the course.

By 11.00 the last competitor had skied the qualifying course and the results were available to create the jump draw.  Team Slovenia Elan in 1st place followed by Austria Red, with one of their team members getting 0 points with the fastest time of 37.97.  Russia 1 was in third place.  After a competitors briefing, the first team to board the aircraft to start the competition in accuracy was the mixed team of Netherlands/USA.

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13th FAI World Para Ski Championships, Gosau, Austria - 28th February 2011

28th February 2011

Arrival day, and what a scene greets competitors and judges as they arrive at this lovely Austrian resort - sunshine, blue skies, snow and low winds - and a great forecast for the rest of the week.

Already there have been canopies in the sky as competitors take advantage of the practice jumps and a chance to ski the local runs.

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13th FAI World Para Ski Championships, Gosau, Austria - Pre-event build up

The quiet Austrian ski resort of Gosau in upper Austria is counting down the days until they are descended on by over 100 competitors from 18 different nations, including those not normally associated with Skiing - Australia, South Africa, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The largest delegation is from Russia.

This year the event will be filmed by Flying Aces for an Airsports TV production. I will be there reporting daily, with pictures and videos and the offical results on this Web Site. The organisers web site is www.paraski2011.at.

13th FAI World Para Ski Championships, Gosau, Austria - Delegations - United States of America

13th FAI World Para Ski Championships, Gosau, Austria - Delegations - United Kingdom

13th FAI World Para Ski Championships, Gosau, Austria - Delegations - Switzerland

13th FAI World Para Ski Championships, Gosau, Austria - Delegations - South Africa